Food allergy and gastrointestinal diseaseThe prevalence of food allergy and other allergic diseases in early childhood in a population-based study: HealthNuts age 4-year follow-up
Section snippets
Recruitment
The HealthNuts study is a population-based, longitudinal food allergy study undertaken in Melbourne, Australia. The recruitment methods have been described in detail previously.12, 13 Briefly, 5276 twelve-month-old infants were recruited (74% participation) from council-run immunization sessions where they underwent SPT screening to 4 common food allergens: egg, peanut, sesame, and either cow's milk or shrimp. Any infant with a detectable SPT wheal (≥1 mm) was invited for a food challenge at
Participation
Participation in the HealthNuts study at age 1 year has been described in detail previously; therefore, Fig 1 describes participation in the age 4-year follow-up.5, 12, 13, 16 At age 4 years, 81.3% of parents completed a questionnaire (n = 4291); of these, 73% completed the full questionnaire and 27% completed a short telephone questionnaire. Among children who were food allergic at age 1 year (n = 539), 89% completed a questionnaire and of these, 65% attended the HealthNuts study clinic for
Discussion
In this longitudinal population-based cohort, the prevalence of food allergy fell by two-thirds from 11% at age 1 year to 3.8% at age 4 years, with resolution of egg allergy being the main driver of this change, dropping from 9.5% to 1.2%. The prevalence of peanut allergy also fell between 1 and 4 years, dropping from 3.1% to 1.9%. Despite this drop, peanut allergy was the most prevalent food allergy in 4-year-old children. The prevalence of parent-reported doctor-diagnosed eczema was stable,
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This work was supported by funding from the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation, AnaphylaxiStop, the Charles and Sylvia Viertel Medical Research Foundation, the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program, and the NHMRC Centre for Food and Allergy Research. K.J.A., L.C.G., A.J.L., M.W., J.J.K., and S.C.D. hold NHMRC awards.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Wake receives grant support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council, and the Foundation for Children; serves as a consultant for Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; received payment for lectures from Sandoz; and received travel support from Victorian State Government, Australia. A.-L. Ponsonby receives grant support from the NHMRC. M. L. K. Tang serves on the board for Nestle Nutrition Institute and Danone Nutricia; serves as a consultant for GLG Consultant and DeerField; received payments for lectures from Danone Nutricia and MD Linx; holds patents with Murdoch Childrens Research Institute; and receives royalties from Wiley. A. J. Lowe receives grant support from the NHMRC. K. J. Allen serves as a consultant for Nestle, ThermoFisher, AspenCare, Before Brands, and Nutricia. The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.