Introduction Interest has been arisen whether nutritional status is related to development of allergic diseases in children. Our aim was to investigate the association between nutritional status and serum IgE level in the developing country.

Methods This cross-sectional study was nested into a large scale nutrition intervention trial among pregnant women in rural Bangladesh. In this follow-up study, we collected venous blood to measure serum total and specific IgE. Serum total IgE was measured by human IgE quantitative ELISA. And IgE specific to dust-mite and ascaris were measured by the CAP-FEIA system. Weight and height have been measured and stunting, wasting, under weight and overweight were calculated by WHO Anthro. Specific IgE >0.70 UA/ml was considered as positive.

Results A total of 912 children of 4.5 years of age was successfully completed the study. Anthropometric indicators revealed wasting in 17%, stunting in 32%, underweight in 41% and overweight in 0.2% of the children. Log total IgE was 2.69+0.27 IU/ml (mean+SD). Mean anti-DP specific IgE was 3.33 (range: 0.00–>100) UA/ml. Mean anti-ascaris specific IgE was 11.89 (range: 0.00–>100) UA/ml. Stunting was significantly associated with increased total IgE (OR (95% CI) 1.59 (1.01 to 2.50)) and anti-ascaris IgE (OR (95% CI) 1.65 (1.18 to 2.29)). The association remained statistically significant after adjustment for mother's BMI, sex, health status and current illnesses (p=0.044 and p=0.003 respectively).

Conclusion The total and specific IgE level was high among children in Bangladesh. Nutritional status had an association with increased total and anti-ascaris IgE antibody.