Most families choose to exclude food allergens from their households, and those that do report more food allergy (FA)-related concerns, according to a research letter published online Dec. 27 inches JAMA Network Open,

Hana B. Ruran, from Boston Children’s Hospital, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the proportion of households excluding allergens by specific FA and the association with FA-related psychosocial functioning. Overall, 919 surveys were completed by parents of a child with FA.

The researchers found that 63.8 percent of parents excluded at least one food from their home due to their children’s FA. The most common allergies were peanut, tree nut, and egg (67.8, 65.5, and 44.0 percent, respectively). The foods most excluded from homes with FAs were peanut, tree nut, and sesame (62.4, 54.7, and 51.3 percent, respectively). Only 24.3 percent of homes with an egg allergy excluded eggs from the home. Significant differences were seen in the proportion of those excluding sesame versus those excluding egg, milk, soy, and wheat. Worse mean FA-related quality-of-life scores for worry, anxiety, and self-efficacy were seen for parents who excluded food from the home because of their child’s FA compared with parents who did not; These findings were consistent in child age subgroups. Compared with children from homes that did not exclude food-related allergens, children aged 8 to 17 years living in homes that excluded food allergens were more likely to have elevated generalized anxiety scores (30.4 versus 15.6 percent).

“Most families chose to exclude food allergens from their household and families engaging in this practice reported more FA-related psychosocial concerns than families who did not,” the authors write.

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