AUTHOR=Zhang Hong , Xu Kang , Liu Zhihui , Shi Yuanmei , Li Hui , Yin Xiaoping 

TITLE=Study on the relationship between intrapartum group B streptococcus prophylaxis and food allergy in children

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2022.1039900

DOI=10.3389/fped.2022.1039900

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>To investigate the associations between intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis of group B streptococcus (GBS) in pregnant women and the risk of food allergy in Chinese children</p></sec><sec><title>Design</title><p>Retrospective cohort study of 2,909 mother-child pairs.</p></sec><sec><title>Setting</title><p>Taixing People's Hospital in Eastern China.</p></sec><sec><title>Participants</title><p>Term infants born 2018–2019, followed longitudinally from birth to 3 years.</p></sec><sec><title>Exposures</title><p>The GBS-IAP was defined as therapy with intravenous penicillin G or ampicillin or cefazolin ≥4 h prior to delivery to the mother. Reference infants were defined as born without or with other intrapartum antibiotic exposure.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>To investigate the incidence information of food allergy in children aged 18 months and three years old. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank tests were used to evaluate the cumulative incidence in the group with GBS-IAP and the group without GBS-IAP. Cox proportional hazards models were conducted to determine the univariate and multivariate association between maternal GBS-IAP and incident food allergy after various covariates were adjusted.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The cumulative incidence of food allergy in the group with GBS-IAP was higher than that in the group without GBS-IAP in children under 18 months old (8.1% vs. 4.5%, <italic>P</italic> = 0.005, log-rank test), but no significant differences were observed in children under three years old (9.2% vs. 7.0%, <italic>P</italic> = 0.146, log-rank test). The univariate cox proportional hazards model in children under 18 months old revealed that children in the GBS-IAP group had faster food allergy development when compared with children in the group without GBS-IAP (HR.: 1.887,95% CI: 1.207–2.950, <italic>P</italic> = 0.005), so was the multivariate model (HR.: 1.906,95% CI: 1.158–3.137, <italic>P</italic> = 0.011). However, both univariate (HR: 1.343, 95% CI: 0.891∼2.026, <italic>P</italic> = 0.159) and multivariate (HR: 1.253, 95%CI: 0.796∼1.972, <italic>P</italic> = 0.329) cox proportional hazards model in children under three years old showed no significant differences between children in the group with GBS-IAP and group without GBS-IAP.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis of group B streptococcus may increase the cumulative incidence and risk of food allergy in children under 18 months old, but it had no significant effect on children under three years old.</p></sec>