Open AccessNutritional behavior and attitudes in food allergic children and their mothers
Author(s) -
Polloni Laura,
Toniolo Alice,
Lazzarotto Francesca,
Baldi Ileana,
Foltran Francesca,
Gregori Dario,
Muraro Antonella
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
clinical and translational allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.979
H-Index - 37
ISSN - 2045-7022
DOI - 10.1186/2045-7022-3-41
Subject(s) - medicine , food allergy , attendance , odds , environmental health , allergy , food choice , demography , logistic regression , immunology , pathology , sociology , economics , economic growth
Abstract Background Avoidance of food allergens requires adapting dietetic habits, changing nutritional approach. A restriction of food choice can result in a monotonous diet and impact social life. This study investigated the impact of food allergy on nutritional behavior and attitudes of patients and their families. Methods A survey involving mothers of food allergic children aged 0–16 years was carried out. We primarily studied the variables related to the child (age, gender, clinical history, food and social events attitudes). In addition, Spielberg Trait‐Anxiety Inventory (STAI‐T) test was applied to the mothers. We assessed separately the associations between characteristics of child‐mother pairs and diet monotony, and attendance to social events, by means of proportional odds regression models. Results Nearly 10% of the 124 participants completely banned allergenic foods at home and 15.3% consumed their meals separately. More than one fourth attended parties rarely or never. Most of the participants reported a “monotonous diet”. Model results suggested significant associations between child age (p = 0.05), mother age (p = 0.05), number of excluded foods (p = 0.003) and monotony of the diet. The attendance of social events was inversely associated with the number of excluded foods (p = 0.04) and the mother's STAI‐T T‐score (p = 0.04). Conclusions The results highlighted the impact of food allergy in reducing interest about food and influencing patients’ approach to social life. It is important to support families in managing allergens avoidance.