Can Vitamin D Supplementation in the First Year of Life Prevent Food Allergy in Infants? The VITALITY Trial: Parts 1&2

Summary

We report that Australia has the highest prevalence of Immunoglobulin(Ig)E-mediated food allergy in the world, with 10% of infants having challenge-proven food allergy in Melbourne. There has been a 5-fold increase in hospital admissions for life-threatening anaphylaxis. These changes are most pronounced in children less than 5 years, suggesting a causal role for early life determinants. We have primary data to inform hypotheses for the rise in food allergy, which appears to result from potentially modifiable factors related to the modern lifestyle, particularly Vitamin D insufficiency (VDI). We propose an intervention study to assess if infant Vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life significantly decreases the risk of early-onset food allergy and other allergic disease at 12 months (part 1) and 6 years of age (part 2). Australia is ideally placed to answer this important question since, unlike the USA, Canada and Europe, there are no population recommendations for routine infant supplementation with Vitamin D and we are one of the few developed countries that do not supplement the food chain supply with Vitamin D.

Timeline

Start

2014-12

Primary completion

2028-04

Completion

2028-12

Publications

• Background Allen KJ, Koplin JJ, Ponsonby AL, Gurrin LC, Wake M, Vuillermin P, Martin P, Matheson M, Lowe A, Robinson M, Tey D, Osborne NJ, Dang T, Tina Tan HT, Thiele L, Anderson D, Czech H, Sanjeevan J, Zurzolo G, Dwyer T, Tang ML, Hill D, Dharmage SC. Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with challenge-proven food allergy in infants. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2013 Apr;131(4):1109-16, 1116.e1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2013.01.017. Epub 2013 Feb 27.
• Background Allen KJ, Panjari M, Koplin JJ, Ponsonby AL, Vuillermin P, Gurrin LC, Greaves R, Carvalho N, Dalziel K, Tang ML, Lee KJ, Wake M, Curtis N, Dharmage SC. VITALITY trial: protocol for a randomised controlled trial to establish the role of postnatal vitamin D supplementation in infant immune health. BMJ Open. 2015 Dec 16;5(12):e009377. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009377.
• Shen Z, Robert L, Stolpman M, Che Y, Allen KJ, Saffery R, Walsh A, Young A, Eckert J, Deming C, Chen Q, Conlan S, Laky K, Li JM, Chatman L, Kashaf SS; NISC Comparative Sequencing Program; VITALITY team; Kong HH, Frischmeyer-Guerrerio PA, Perrett KP, Segre JA. A genome catalog of the early-life human skin microbiome. Genome Biol. 2023 Nov 10;24(1):252. doi: 10.1186/s13059-023-03090-w.

Drugs

Indications