AUTHOR=Wang Fang , Wang Xiaolie , Wang Jiayan , Liu Biqing 

TITLE=Associations of single and multiple vitamin exposure with childhood eczema: data from the national health and nutrition examination survey

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2024.1328592

DOI=10.3389/fped.2024.1328592

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Aim</title><p>The association between vitamins and eczema has garnered attention, yet few studies have evaluated the effects of co-exposure to multiple vitamins on this condition. This study aims to assess the association of vitamin mixtures with eczema in children.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 2,244 children aged 6–17 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Eczema served as the primary outcome. Six serum vitamins, namely, vitamins A, B<sub>6</sub>, B<sub>12</sub>, C, D, and E, were the main variables. Weighted multivariate logistic regression was adopted to analyze the association between each serum vitamin and eczema. Odds ratios (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analysis and the quantile g-computation (qgcomp) model were used to evaluate the association of co-exposure to multiple vitamins with eczema.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>In total, 10.83% of children (<italic>n</italic> = 243) developed eczema. After adjusting for confounding factors, we observed that compared with the reference group (vitamin B<sub>12</sub> with second quartile), the OR for eczema was 0.604 (95% CI: 0.373–0.978, <italic>P</italic> = 0.041) for the first quartile of vitamin B<sub>12</sub>. Both BKMR analysis and the qgcomp model consistently showed that co-exposure to the six vitamins was positively correlated with the risk of eczema, with vitamin B<sub>6</sub> contributing most to the overall effect. In BKMR analyses, we observed an interaction between vitamins B<sub>6</sub> and B<sub>12</sub> concerning eczema risk.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Co-exposure to vitamins A, C, B<sub>6</sub>, B<sub>12</sub>, D, and E was found to be associated with an increased risk of eczema in children, with vitamin B<sub>6</sub> as the greatest positive contributor driving the overall effect.</p></sec>