Relationships between Infant Nutrition and Asthma | The Icelandic Health Science Institute

11. January 2024

Inga Þórsdóttir is a professor of nutrition at the University of Iceland. She is a pioneer in researching the nutrition of individuals from early stages, spanning from the fetal and infant stages to adolescence, and in some cases, even into later years. Currently, Inga is working on a new study with a team of researchers from various backgrounds, which could potentially be significant in recommendations on infant nutrition to address asthma. Asthma is a growing concern, not only locally but also globally, as air pollution is on the rise, and it is believed to have adverse effects on the development of the disease.

"If there are connections between the nutrition of young children and asthma, it might be possible to protect against this illness. Emphasis is also placed on investigating the relationship with body weight and air quality, in addition to background factors. Regarding the timing of influencing factors, such as infant nutrition and air quality, we primarily look at the time when the child is in the first year to about 18 months. However, this can be modified since access to air quality data is available over a longer period. . We examine the outcome variables, asthma and growth, over a longer period, from infancy to elementary school age," says the researcher when discussing the project.

Inga Þórsdóttir's research has been crucial to public health, leading to changes in official recommendations to parents regarding child nutrition to improve their health. These new recommendations and altered nutrition are likely to have a positive effect on people's health throughout their lives. For example, connections were observed in Inga's study and her collaborators between birth weight and cardiovascular diseases and risk factors for the same individuals later in life. This research was conducted in collaboration with the Icelandic Heart Association.

Furthermore, Inga's research, in collaboration with others, has shown connections between high consumption of regular cow's milk in the first year and poor iron status on one hand, and overweight at the age of six on the other hand. These studies contributed to changing recommendations to parents regarding infant nutrition.

Enhancing Understanding of the Relationship between Nutrition and Diseases

"The scientific project is structured with three work packages, each addressing one of three specific sub-goals. The first sub-goal focuses on infant nutrition and asthma, the second on the interaction with body weight, and the third on the relationship with air quality, measured through particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide," says Inga.

She adds that infant nutrition might have various effects on asthma development, especially when considering the impact of air pollution.

"The results of this research will increase our understanding of how infant nutrition, growth, and body weight influence the risk of asthma and could potentially serve as a part of preventive measures against this challenging disease. The research could have significant implications for recommendations on infant nutrition, not only locally but also globally, where air pollution is a growing concern," she notes.

Valuable Data Used in the Study

As Inga reflects on this research project, she emphasizes its long history. She has been researching child nutrition since 1995. Inga served as the Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Iceland for an extended period but is now fully immersed research.

Icelanders benefit from having extensive data available on health and various factors related to lifestyle and nutrition. Inga and her team's project is part of a larger study on the health of mothers and children, providing an opportunity to utilize such data from health records to increase knowledge about maternal and child health.

"Innovation in nutrition can help people achieve health, assess and improve their own diets and those of their children. Innovation lies in changed recommendations aiming at healthier diets, which simultaneously reduce the carbon footprint of food systems. This is crucial," says Inga.

Inga states that the current focus of the team is to explore the potential role of nutrition in the infant stage as a preventive measure against asthma in childhood. "We use data from health records for nearly 23,000 children from birth to the first one and a half years and until they are seven to twelve years old. Information on nutrition, growth, asthma diagnosis, and medication use will be utilized until the children are seven to twelve years old," explains Inga when outlining the research in more detail.

"We have been collecting data for a long time in two cohort studies conducted with a ten-year interval in children aged zero to six, and we have also participated in international studies on child nutrition. We have analysed diets, the frequency and causes of iron deficiency, examined vitamin D and iodine status, investigated growth, and assessed connections to development and much more. The spark for this project, in particular, lies in the observation that childhood asthma seems to be more common in Iceland than in neighbouring nations, and air quality is particularly interesting in this context, not least due to volcanic eruptions."

Adopting a healthy Lifestyle is the Best Prevention

Inga emphasizes the importance of enabling people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, considering nutrition and other factors, and receiving guidance based on well-established research. "Innovation in nutrition can help people achieve health, assess and improve their own diets and those of their children. Innovation lies in changed recommendations aiming at healthier diets, which simultaneously reduce the carbon footprint of food systems. This is crucial," says Inga, and she knows what she is talking about, having been part of a special advisory group on nutrition for the Nordic region for the past four years. She has been a part of the advisory group for times, initially in 1992.

The strategy of the University of Iceland, HÍ26 places emphasis on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Inga states that nutrition is related to all global goals, making research in this field extremely important.

"The solution to nutritional questions is necessary to achieve all seventeen global goals. This is a vast field and a big question – but in this context, the third and fourth SDG are particularly relevant regarding health and well-being on one hand and education on the other. A healthy child who feels well learns better."

Prolific Research Team

The results of the research are beginning to emerge, and the first doctoral student article is in progress, focusing on nutrition and its connections to background variables.

In addition to Inga, the research team includes Birna Þórisdóttir, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Iceland,and Kristjana Einarsdóttir, a professor in public health sciences at the University's Faculty of Medicine. The project involves the following collaborators: Jenný Jónsdóttir, a doctoral student in health sciences and a nurse with an MS in health sciences. The data scientist is the computer scientist Jaan Jaaerving.

Other collaborators include Alma María Rögnvaldsdóttir, a public health nurse, Margrét Ólafía Tómasdóttir, a public health physician and assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland, Þorsteinn Jóhannsson and Ragnhildur Finnbjörnsdóttir from the Environment Agency of Iceland, Geir Gunnlaugsson, a paediatrician and professor emeritus in environmental health at the University of Iceland, Gunnar Guðmundsson, a pulmonologist and professor at the University of Iceland's Faculty of Medicine, and Ingibjörg Gunnarsdóttir, a professor of nutrition at the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Iceland and Pro-Rector of sciences at the University of Iceland.

Productive Scientist

The University of Iceland's Science Web provides detailed information about the scientist Inga Þórsdóttir, stating that she has been teaching nutrition at the University of Iceland since 1989. She became a professor in 1997 and served as the Dean of the School of Health Sciences in 2012. Inga's research focuses on human nutrition, clinical nutrition, and public health nutrition. She has emphasized nutrition for vulnerable groups in society and investigated nutritional elements. Inga has been part of research groups applying various methods, from experiments to randomized comparative studies, and both forward and backward epidemiological approaches.