Table 3

Fecal microbial diversity at ages 1 and 4 months, and eczema¹ at age 6 months, stratified by mode of delivery

Vaginal Delivery²

Cesarean Section²

Means

Means

Age

Eczema

Controls

p-value³

Eczema

Controls

p-value³

DGGE bands⁴

1 month

3.60

5.20

0.05

4.00

4.57

0.75

4 months

4.20

7.75

0.26

3.50

5.67

0.12

Shannon index⁵

1 month

0.50

0.83

0.04

0.56

0.70

0.16

4 months

0.63

0.94

0.18

0.56

0.90

0.04

¹Defined as parental report of physician-diagnosed eczema at or before 6 months of age

²There was no difference in microbial diversity when comparing delivery modes regardless of eczema status (p > 0.90)

³Mann-Whitney U-test p-value

⁴Number of denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands in each sample

⁵Shannon diversity index (H') calculated using the relative intensity of all bands within each sample

Forno et al. Clinical and Molecular Allergy 2008 6:11   doi:10.1186/1476-7961-6-11