title: Perceived food allergy in children in 10 European nations. A randomised telephone survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Food allergy is targeted as a public health priority by the European Union Commission. Parental perception of food allergy in their offspring is a proxy measure of the potential demand for allergy medicine services in the paediatric population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A representative sample of the general population was contacted by a randomised telephone survey in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland. A standardised questionnaire was administered regarding parentally perceived food allergy reports, symptoms, foods and medical service use by their live-in children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  40,246 adults were polled, yielding data on 8,825 children. Parentally perceived food allergy prevalence was 4.7% (90% CI 4.2-5.2%). The most affected age group was 2- to 3-year olds (7.2%). Single-country incidence ranged between 1.7% (Austria) to 11.7% (Finland). Milk (38.5%), fruits (29.5%), eggs (19.0%) and vegetables (13.5%) were most often implicated, although with significant age-linked variations. Medical treatment was needed by 75.7% of affected children because of a food reaction. This translates into a proxy measure for food allergy prevalence of 3.75%. Skin symptoms were widespread (71.5%), followed by gastrointestinal (27.6%) and respiratory (18.5%) symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We provide the first point prevalence of parentally perceived food allergy in the general paediatric population across the European Union. Parental reports confirm the public health significance of adverse reactions to some foods in specified age groups. Our data may inform intervention planning, cost of illness assessments and quality-of-life-enhancing public health measures.
authors.affiliation: Institut fur Angewandte Verbraucherforschung e.V., Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steinke
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fiocchi
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kirchlechner
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ballmer-Weber
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brockow
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hischenhuber
authors.forename: Manjula
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ring
authors.forename: Radvan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Urbanek
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terracciano
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wezel
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires