METHODS
Participants
It is envisaged that a future RCT investigating whether
vitamin E modification during pregnancy reduces the
likelihood of childhood asthma would focus on women
pregnant with a child at high risk for developing asthma.
These women are likely to be more motivated to participate
and comply with the intervention; a further advantage
is that the sample size is minimized because of the
higher incidence of asthma in their offspring. Therefore,
in this pilot study, pregnant women with a personal
and/or partner history of asthma attending the Aberdeen
Maternity Hospital for routine antenatal care were recruited
at 12 weeks gestation. The aim of this study was
to recruit and randomize 40 subjects; 20 intervention and
20 controls. Subjects were allocated in accordance with a
prerecruitment computer-generated randomization sequence.
Vitamin E supplement use was an exclusion criterion.
All participants provided written informed consent
and ethical approval was granted by the North of
Scotland Research Ethics Service (08/S0802/130).