Food allergy is on the rise and so is its impact on patients’ and their families’ mental health and quality of life. The impact on quality of life can also take a toll on those living with food hypersensitivity. Socially, it can limit activities outside of the home such as going out for dinner with friends, to birthday parties or travelling. This can result in individuals feeling excluded from activities and experiencing higher levels of social isolation and anxiety. Parents can become extremely concerned and anxious for their child navigating daily life with a life-threatening allergy and have reported a constant level of fear and anxiety.
When you consider how integral food is to almost every aspect of daily life, you begin to appreciate the extra time and care that is needed to ensure food is safe for individuals with food hypersensitivities.
Every single time we leave the safety of our house, we must ensure we have taken all the necessary precautions to reduce the risk of a fatal allergic reaction occurring.
Having grown up living with food allergies, and witnessed first-hand the impact of living with allergies compared to my peers, I was motivated to investigate the socio-economic impact of living with food hypersensitivities with the research teams at Technological University Dublin and Queens University Belfast.
Our aim was to determine the extent to which food hypersensitivity impacts adults’ and children’s lives, from a socioeconomic and quality-of-life perspective.
Food hypersensitivity is a broad term but for the purposes of this research, it referred to food allergy, food intolerance and coeliac disease.
Our research looked at the non-monetary, intangible costs involved with a food hypersensitivity and how it impacts on people’s quality of life. The respondents to the survey reported a lower health status, leading to a lower quality of life. They experienced significantly higher levels of pain and discomfort. Among adults and adolescents, anxiety and depression were common.
These findings are in general agreement with previous studies (Fong et al., 2017; Shaker et al., 2017; Du Toit et al., 2016; Greenhawt, 2016; Walker et al., 2015), and particularly two studies in Swedish children and adults that used the same EQ-5D model as in this study (Protudjer et al., 2015; Jansson et al., 2013).
With regard to areas of life affected by food hypersensitivity, the ‘ability to eat out’ was the most cited parameter affecting QoL by food allergic respondents (74% to 86%). The most reported parameter affecting QoL in those with Coeliac Disease (96-98%) and Food Intolerant respondents (68-88%) and their families was the ‘cost of food shopping’. These challenges have been previously reported for people with medically diagnosed food allergy (DunnGalvin et al., 2015; Jansson et al., 2013; Jansson et al., 2015) and medically diagnosed Coeliac Disease (MacCulloch and Rashid, 2014; Altobelli et al., 2013; Black & Orfila, 2011; Roma et al., 2010).
Personally, I find eating out one of the biggest challenges of living with a food allergy. Dining out with friends and family is such an essential part of our social fabric that finding a way to do can be very challenging and time-consuming for me and other individuals with food hypersensitivities. As an active member of allergy support groups, we often discuss tools on how we can better manage our condition without it negatively impacting our daily lives. This support system helps empower individuals with food hypersensitivities and research shows that peer-to-peer support is a powerful tool to share experiences, advice, and emotional support to help reduce stigma.
There is also evidence to suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the quality of life of those affected by food hypersensitivity (Protudjer et al., 2019) with unexpected challenges associated with food shopping and delays in food allergy testing and therapy were some of the reasons cited.
Now that we understand more about the challenges of living with food hypersensitivities, these research findings can be used to help inform policymakers when developing future support to improve the health and quality of life of those affected by food hypersensitivity and their families.
With the growing body of literature on allergy research, collaboration and communication between researchers, policymakers and stakeholders is vital to provide the appropriate support to help those affected by food hypersensitivity .
This was a collaborative project funded by Safefood and led by teams from the School of Food Science & Environmental Health, Technological University Dublin and the Centre for Public Health, Queens University Belfast
REFERENCES
Fong, A., Katelaris, C., and Wainstein, B. (2017). ‘Bullying and quality of life in children and adolescents with food allergy’. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 53(7), pp.630-635.
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Protudjer, J.L.P., Jansson S.A., Heibert-Arnlind M., Bengtsson U., Kallström- Bengtsson, I., Marklund, B., Middelveld, R., Rentzos G., Sundqvist, A.C., Åkerström, J., Östblom, E., Dahlén, S.E., Ahlstedt, S. (2015). ‘Household costs associated with objectively diagnosed allergy to staple foods in children and adolescents.’ Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Practice. 3, 68-75
