It has been shown in a Menorca birth cohort that scoring higher on the Mediterranean Diet Score [MDS] (1) during pregnancy is protective for persistent and atopic wheeze and atopy at age 6.5 years (2).

In the ALSPAC cohort, dietary patterns in pregnancy using PCA have been obtained (3). We found no association between these patterns and childhood asthma or atopy after adjustment for a wide variety of potential confounding factors (4). However, we have not examined any specific a priori scores.

Given the cultural differences in diet between these two cohorts it will be of interest to see how the two methods of examining dietary patterns compare within the cohorts (PCA and a prior MDS score).

Following discussion it was agreed between MT and KN that PCA would be performed on the Menorca dietary data, while MDS would be applied to the ALSPAC data to further examine the associations with atopy/asthma.

We will therefore calculate a MDS for the ALSPAC mother's during pregnancy and relate these scores to childhood atopy and asthma, as presented in our submitted paper (4). We will treat the MDS as both continuous and categorical (using a low and high score as presented by Chatzi etal (2)).

1. Trichopoulou A, Costacou T, Bamia C et al. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and survival in a Greek population. N Engl J Med 2003; 348; 2599-2608.

2. Chatzi L, Torrent M, Romieu I et al. Mediterranean diet in pregnancy is protective for wheeze and atopy in childhood. Thorax 2008; 63: 507-513.

3. Northstone K, Emmett P, Rogers I. Dietary patterns in pregnancy and associations with socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. Eur J Clin Nutr 2008; 62: 471-479.

4. Shaheen S, Northstone K, Newson R, et al. Dietary patterns in pregnancy and respiratory and atopic outcomes in childhood. Submitted.