Maternal Plasma Phosphatidylcholine Fatty Acids and Atopy and Wheeze in the Offspring at Age of 6 Years
Table 1
Comparison of SWS mother-child pairs with complete data with those lacking either maternal fatty acid or 6-year follow-up data but born in the same time period.
Mother-child pairs in analysis ()
Mother-child pairs with missing data ()
Maternal characteristics
Age at child’s birth (mean (SD))
30.4 (3.8)
29.6 (3.8)
0.0003
Primiparous ( (%))
No
463 (53.5)
368 (59.4)
0.03
Yes
402 (46.5)
252 (40.6)
Education attainment ( (%))*
<0.001
None
14 (1.6)
35 (5.7)
GCSE D–G
84 (9.7)
67 (10.8)
GCSE A*–C
248 (28.7)
179 (28.9)
A Level
251 (29.1)
184 (29.7)
HND
64 (7.4)
40 (6.5)
University degree
203 (23.5)
114 (18.4)
Parents’ social class ( (%))†
0.01
I
91 (10.6)
54 (11.7)
II
427 (49.9)
199 (43.3)
III Nonmanual
234 (27.4)
123 (26.7)
III Manual
67 (7.8)
54 (11.7)
IV
34 (4.0)
23 (5.0)
V
2 (0.2)
7 (1.5)
Smoked in pregnancy ( (%))
<0.001
No
728 (85.5)
464 (78.0)
Yes
123 (14.5)
131 (22.0)
Maternal asthma ( (%))
0.2
No
676 (78.8)
465 (76.1)
Yes
182 (21.2)
146 (23.9)
Maternal childhood eczema ( (%))
0.7
No
706 (82.4)
498 (81.5)
Yes
151 (17.6)
113 (18.5)
Maternal rhinitis ( (%))
0.3
No
497 (57.9)
369 (60.4)
Yes
361 (42.1)
242 (39.6)
Prepregnancy BMI, kg/m2 (median, IQR)
24.3 (22.0–27.6)
24.0 (21.9–27.3)
0.5
Total energy intake, kcal (median, IQR)
2301 (1919–2748)
2354 (1958–2779)
0.08
Paternal characteristics
Paternal asthma ( (%))
0.5
No
699 (82.1)
484 (80.8)
Yes
152 (17.9)
115 (19.2)
Paternal childhood eczema ( (%))
0.9
No
743 (88.2)
527 (88.1)
Yes
99 (11.8)
71 (11.9)
Paternal rhinitis ( (%))
0.5
No
599 (66.3)
399 (66.5)
Yes
284 (33.7)
201 (33.5)
Child’s characteristics
Gender ( (%))
0.5
Male
447 (51.7)
331 (53.6)
Female
418 (48.3)
287 (46.4)
Birth weight, kg (mean (SD))
3.49 (0.50)
3.46 (0.50)
0.4
Gestational age, weeks (mean (SD))
39.9 (1.4)
39.9 (1.5)
0.6
Months of breastfeeding ( (%))
<0.001
None
133 (15.4)
130 (23.5)
<1
170 (19.7)
113 (20.4)
1–3
153 (17.7)
119 (21.5)
4–6
153 (17.7)
70 (12.6)
7–11
143 (16.6)
81 (14.6)
12 or more
111 (12.9)
41 (7.4)
Age of introduction solid food, weeks (median (IQR))
17.0 (15–18)
17 (15–18)
0.3
Mother smoking during child’s infancy ( (%))
0.003
No
712 (83.0)
434 (76.7)
Yes
146 (17.0)
132 (23.3)
Cats/dogs in home during child’s infancy ( (%))
0.5
No
438 (50.8)
290 (52.8)
Yes
424 (49.2)
259 (47.2)
Numbers do not always add to the full column totals due to missing data Binary outcomes were compared by test, categorical outcomes by a test for trend, and continuous variables using -tests, after transformation where appropriate, or a ranksum test.
*GCSE General certificate of secondary education, high school education (to age 16) graded from G (low) to A* (high), A level Advanced-level high school education (to age 18), HND Higher national diploma higher education qualification of slightly lower level than that of a university degree. †Social class graded from V (low) to (I) high according to occupation.
