title: Comparison of the prevalence and characteristics of food hypersensitivity among adolescent and older women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although food hypersensitivity is a public health concern, its documentation among the elderly is limited. The current study aims to compare the prevalence and characteristics of food hypersensitivity among adolescent women between aged 18-24 with among older women >50 years of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  660 female university students between the ages of 18 and 24 who volunteered were enrolled as adolescent subjects. 470 women >50 years old who visited the Health Care Centre of Kyoto Katsura Hospital for health check-ups were enrolled as the older subjects. A questionnaire created by ourselves asking the presence of food hypersensitivity, symptoms, causative food, personal or family history of other allergic disorders was distributed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of food hypersensitivity was statistically similar between adolescent (8.2%) and older women (8.9%). Among them, only 24.1% of the adolescent women and 26.2% of the older women had been diagnosed by physicians as having food allergy. The main causative foods (fruits, shellfish and fish) and the manifestations relating to food hypersensitivity were almost identical between adolescent and older women. In both adolescent and older women, food hypersensitivity positive group showed significantly higher prevalence of personal or family history of allergic disorders than that in food hypersensitivity negative group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data indicate that food hypersensitivity in older women should be given more attention because the prevalence of this condition was as common as that in adolescent women.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Life and Environment, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan.
authors.forename: Anri
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Life and Environment, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Life and Environment, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan. Email: mkubota@cc.nara-wu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Human Life and Environment, Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Beppu University, Oita, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobue
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takamatsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Tenri Hospital, Nara, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuhiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nambu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult