title: Quality of Life Among Food Allergic Patients and Their Caregivers.
abstract: Food allergy is increasing in prevalence worldwide. This review summarizes progress made studying relationships between food allergy and quality of life (QOL), with an emphasis on recent work in the field. Early work examining QOL among food allergy patients established that stress and anxiety associated with continuous allergen avoidance and the looming threat of anaphylaxis were associated with significantly impaired food allergy quality of life (FAQOL) for children with food allergy and their caregivers. Recent clinical studies suggest that undergoing oral food challenge to confirm food allergy and oral immunotherapy to treat food allergy may each improve FAQOL among both patients and their caregivers. Other intervention modalities, such as nurse-facilitated counseling and educational workshops, also hold promise, but additional work is needed. Future work must strive to recruit more representative, population-based samples, including adult patients, in order to improve the generalizability and clinical relevance of findings.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 750 N Lake Shore Dr. 6th Floor, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Warren
authors.affiliation: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Box 86, 225 E, Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Alana K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Box 157, 225 E, Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors.forename: Madeline M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Walkner
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 750 N Lake Shore Dr. 6th Floor, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA. r-gupta@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Ruchi S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens; D000707:Anaphylaxis; D017028:Caregivers; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens
keywords: Anaphylaxis; Food allergy; Food hypersensitivity; Pediatrics; Quality of life