POPH90014: Breastfeeding and asthma and allergies - Epidemiology Assignment

Internal Code: MAS3515

Epidemiology Assignment:

Allergic diseases are common in childhood and a significant cause of morbidity. During recent decades, there has been a dramatic rise in prevalence of these conditions, which include asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis, and a similar, delayed increase has been observed for food allergy in the last 10–15 years. Over 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma. Allergic rhinitis is estimated to affect between 10 and 30% of the global population. Eczema and food allergy also represent major public health problems and are both associated with profound negative impacts on health-related quality of life. The complexity and severity of allergic disease continue to increase, particularly in children and young adults, who bear most of the burden of disease. Breast milk is an immunologically complex solution, containing multiple compounds that support infant growth and facilitate the development of host defence mechanisms. In addition to passive immunity (from bioactive components such as secretory IgA and IgG), breast milk also contains factors that actively stimulate the infant immune system. Consequently, breast milk provides both protective and stimulatory signals, which may confer Questions: 1) Does the introduction clearly describe the rationale in the context of what is already known? 2) Does the introduction provide an explicit statement of questions being addressed with reference to participants, interventions,  comparisons, outcomes, and study design? 3) Would it be possible for another person to replicate the electronic search strategy for at least one of the databases 4) From the flow diagram, are you able to determine why some studies that were included in the box labelled “Total Studies Included” were not included in the meta-analysis