title: Monitoring the impact of cow's milk allergy on children and their families with the FLIP questionnaire--a six-month follow-up study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many children with cow's milk allergy (CMA) develop tolerance, but, challenges in daily life may remain. Using the Food hypersensitivity famiLy ImPact questionnaire (FLIP), we sought to monitor changes in the impact of CMA over time.
  
  
  METHODS
  Families of children with CMA, who participated in the validation of the FLIP, were re-approached 6 months later for follow-up. Change in reported difficulties was assessed by paired sample t-test and mixed models, stratifying by outgrown vs. persistent CMA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Impact on families with children who had outgrown CMA (n = 20) decreased in the FLIP's total score (p = 0.0001) and in two subscales; Health and Emotions (p = 0.0001) and Everyday Life (p = 0.0001). In contrast, no significant improvements were registered in nutritional concerns. Impact on the group with persistent CMA (n = 57) was unchanged at follow-up except for more impact on Everyday Life (p = 0.001). In the final analysis comparing longitudinal changes in the groups, the strongest differences were observed for the subscales Health & Emotions and Everyday Life; for the Nutrition subscale, the between-group changes also differed, but to lesser extent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have documented the varying impact of CMA on parents and children over time. Families who were still affected continued to experience impact in daily life. Despite development of tolerance, families who were no longer affected revealed continuing nutritional concerns. Follow-ups should be offered even after outgrown CMA to encourage progression to unrestricted diet, to prevent eating disorders and to promote healthy growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine/Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.|Pediatric Clinics, Primary Care, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mikkelsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine/Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mehlig
authors.affiliation: ThermoFisher Scientific, Uppsala, Sweden.|Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Magnus P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Borres
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.|Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Nursing, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oxelmark
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine/Primary Health Care, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Björkelund
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Community Medicine/Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lissner
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004644:Emotions; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016269:Milk Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: change in impact over time; children and family; cow's milk allergy; cow's milk hypersensitivity; food allergy; food hypersensitivity; impact on daily life