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Kim and Kim: Food Allergy Awareness and Nutritional Management by the Parents of Preschool Children
Research Article

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2016; 21(5): 426-439.

Published online: 31 October 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2016.21.5.426

Food Allergy Awareness and Nutritional Management by the Parents of Preschool Children

Soo Bin Kim, Jung Hee Kim

Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Jung Hee Kim. Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul Women’s University, 621 Hwarangno, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01797, Korea. Tel: (02) 970-5646, Fax: (02) 976-4049, jheekim@swu.ac.kr

Received 26 September 2016       Revised 13 October 2016       Accepted 19 October 2016

Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

(open-access):

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

This study was performed to measure the food allergy (FA) awareness and management by the parents of preschool children.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was conducted with the parents of preschool children. The questionnaire was designed to identify the prevalence of food allergies, requirements of food allergy support and differences in food management according to the presence or absence allergic diseases, using a modified International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. After excluding incomplete responses, the data of 158 parents of preschool children (90.3%) was used for statistical analysis.

Results

The rate of the preschool children who had experienced food allergy (FA, ever) was 38.6% while diagnosed for food allergy by doctor (Diagnosis of FA, ever) was 17.7%. Forty nine preschool children (80.3%) had food restriction, and twenty three of them (37.7%) had self-restriction without diagnosis. The consumption frequencies of allergenic foods in FA group, such as ramyeon, noodles, bread, eggs, yogurt and ice cream were significantly (p<0.001) lower than those of the other two groups. The major allergenic foods were eggs, milk, wheat and processed foods in FA group. The overall food allergy-related knowledge level of parents was insufficient. Only 26 parents (16.5%) had received training about food allergies. All parents wanted to receive food allergy-related supports. In addition, most of parents wanted information on substitute menu for children with food allergy.

Conclusions

This study identified a lack of food allergy training for the parents of preschool children and the necessity for food allergy education. Food allergy-related supports, such as menus without allergenic ingredients, guidelines for managing food allergy & anaphylaxis emergency care plan etc, should be provided to the parents in order to avoid events related to food allergies.

Keywords: food allergy, preschool children, nutritional management

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General characteristic of the subjects by allergy status

kjcn-21-426-i001

1) Group: FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) N (%)

3) Mean±SD

***: p<0.001 by Chi-square test

Table 2

Anthropometric measurements of the subjects by allergy status

kjcn-21-426-i002

1) FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) Value by Fisher’s exact test since cells have expected frequency less than 5

3) Assessment: under (< 5 percentile), normal (5~95 percentile), over (≥ 95 percentile)

4) N (%)

5) Assessment: under (< 90%), normal (90~109%), over (110~119%), obesity (≥ 120%)

PIBW: percent ideal body weight

Table 3

Prevalence of food allergy among preschool children using ISAAC1) written questionnaire

kjcn-21-426-i003

1) International study of asthma and allergies in childhood

2) N (%) of yes

Table 4

Food allergens of preschool children reported by their parents1)

kjcn-21-426-i004

1) Data are multiple responses (parents of preschool children were allowed to select more than one food allergen).

2) preschool children who have restricted diet because of real food allergy symptoms, but not diagnosed by physician.

3) N (%)

Table 5

Food allergy awareness and knowledge of the parents of preschool children

kjcn-21-426-i005

1) FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) High degree of awareness (answered 'yes'): 1, low degree of awareness (answered 'no' or 'unknown'): 0

3) N (%) of awareness or N (%) of correct answer

4) Knowledge of food allergy: correct answer: 1, wrong answer (include 'unknown'): 0

Values are Mean±SD

**: p<0.01 by ANOVA, NS: not significant

a,b: Means with different superscript letter are significantly different at p<0.05 by Duncan’s multiple range test.

Table 6

Dietary habits of the preschool children by allergy status

kjcn-21-426-i006

1) FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) N (%)

3) Data are multiple responses.

4) N (%): Except for those preschool children, before starting the weaning food (n=8)

**: p<0.01 by Chi-square test

Table 7

Intake frequency of grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy product in preschool children by allergy status

kjcn-21-426-i007

1) FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) N (%)

***: p<0.001 by Fisher’s exact test since cells have expected frequency less than 5 or Chi-square test)

Table 8

Intake frequency of meats, fish, eggs and pulses in preschool children by allergy status

kjcn-21-426-i008

1) FA: food allergy, OA: other allergy, NA: non allergy 2) N (%)

***: p<0.001 by Fisher’s exact test since cells have expected frequency less than 5

Table 9

Food allergy care and management status of the parents of preschool children

kjcn-21-426-i009

1) FA; food allergy, OA; other allergy, NA; non allergy

2) N (%)

3) ”Education experience on food allergy?” only corresponded 'yes'

4) Data are multiple responses.

**: p < 0.01 , ***: p < 0.001 by Fisher’s exact test since cells have expected frequency less than 5 or Chi-square test)

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant of Seoul Women’s Institute of Nature Science in 2016.
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ORCID iDs

Jung Hee Kim
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5435-6166

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