TOPLINE

Multiple factors affected health-related quality of life (HRQL) in people with food allergy, with women showing the most negative impact; women with multiple food allergies had the poorest food allergy HRQL (FA-HRQL).

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers used data from a cross-sectional study conducted across 19 centers in Spain involving 502 patients with serum immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy (median age, 31.1 years; 63.9% women) to identify determinants of poor FA-HRQL.
• Most participants were adults (86%), whereas adolescents aged 13-17 years accounted for 7.4% and children aged 8-12 years made up 6.6% of the sample.
• Participants older than 8 years completed age-appropriate, validated Spanish versions of the Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire (FAQLQ), including the Child Form (for children aged 8-12 years), the Teenager Form (for adolescents aged 13-17 years), and the Adult Form.
• Poor FA-HRQL was defined as FAQLQ score ≥ 5 on a seven-point scale, wherein a score of 1 indicates no impairment and a score of 7 indicates extreme impairment.

TAKEAWAY

• The median FAQLQ score was 4.55, suggesting a moderate-to-high effect on FA-HRQL, with adults exhibiting poorer quality of life than adolescents and children (P < .01 for both); women had higher scores than men across all domains (P < .01).
• A model identifying female sex, multiple food allergies, vegetable allergy, and a history of severe allergic reactions as risk factors for poorer quality of life achieved an area under the curve of 0.71.
• Decision tree analysis revealed a similar pattern, with women having seven or more food allergies showing the worst FA-HRQL. Among men, those with only one food allergy had the least negative impact.
• Among patients with an FAQLQ score ≥ 5, 78.7% were women. Overall, poor FA-HRQL was 2.5 times more common in female participants (47.7%) than in male participants (19.3%).

IN PRACTICE

“Incorporating the FAQLQ into routine clinical practice could facilitate the proactive identification of patients with impaired FA-HRQL, particularly those at higher risk,” the authors wrote. “Multidisciplinary teams comprising allergists, psychologists, and nutritionists can provide these patients with personalized education, tailored treatment plans, dietary guidance aligned with their allergen profiles and lifestyles, and psychological support,” they added. 

SOURCE

Montserrat Fernández-Rivas, PhD, with the Hospital Clínico San Carlos, IDISSC, Madrid, Spain, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on June 19 in Allergy.

LIMITATIONS

The authors did not collect data on sex-related or socioeconomic determinants of health — variables that may have affected FA-HRQL or modified the effects of the identified determinants. Moreover, children and adolescents were underrepresented.

DISCLOSURES

The study was nested within the BIOGRIAL project and the activities of the Red de Enfermedades Inflamatorias, both funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministry of Science, Spanish Government, and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund/European Social Fund. Some authors, including the corresponding author, disclosed receiving grants and consultancy fees from the funding agency. Detailed disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.