A Western Dietary Pattern is Related with Allergic Rhinitis in Young Women

Background: There has been an increasing prevalence of allergic disorders globally, and it may be useful to characterize the predisposing and protective factors for the development of allergy. Diet has been identified as one possible environmental factor implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns with the presence of allergies in a group of young women in East of Iran Methods: In total 181 female students enrolled in this study. Presence of allergic diseases including allergic rhinitis (AR), asthma and eczema was confirmed by an expert allergist. Information about dietary intake was collected by using a 65-item validated food frequency questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the relationships among food/nutrition variables. Result: Multivariate odds ratio of having AR was 2.5 (95% CI:1.1-5.1) for the highest compared to lowest tertile of the Western dietary pattern score. But, no significant relationship was found between the traditional dietary pattern and AR, asthma or eczema. Conclusion: Our findings indicate a potential role of Western dietary pattern, characterized by being rich in dairy products, snack, nuts and sugar in the development of AR. Since diet is a modifiable impetus, the relationship between AR and Western dietary pattern may has a clinical application, particularly in those who has risk factors for developing AR.