Many children with food allergies experience psychosocial burdens associated with food-allergy related bullying and anxiety
MILWAUKEE, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Children with food allergies experience high rates of food-allergy related bullying and anxiety according to new research being presented at the 2025 AAAAI / WAO Joint Congress in San Diego, CA later this month.
"Our study findings highlight that it is important for allergists and pediatricians to screen for food allergy-related bullying, as it is associated with elevated concerns in other child and parental food allergy-related psychosocial functioning domains," said Ianthe Schepel, BMBCh, MPhil, MS, senior resident in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital.
In this study, researchers compared the psychosocial functioning of children and parents who experienced food allergy-related bullying with that of children and parents who had not. Self-administered electronic survey data were collected from a cross-sectional convenience sample of children with IgE-mediated food allergy, aged 5-17 years old, and their parents recruited through Boston Children's Hospital and social media outlets.
The cohort included 295 parent-child pairs from 27 US states, and bullying status was assessed by either a parent or child report of the child ever having been bullied due to food allergy. Both children and parents completed age-appropriate validated questionnaires assessing psychosocial wellbeing, and psychosocial outcomes were compared between the group who reported food allergy-related bullying and the group who did not report food allergy-related bullying. In this cohort, 96.6% of respondents were mothers and the median child age was 8 years old.
Food allergy-related bullying was reported by 36.6% of respondents, and children and parents who reported food allergy-related bullying had significantly worse psychosocial functioning compared with those who did not report bullying. Bullying was associated with lower food allergy-related quality of life and higher rates of food allergy-specific anxiety in both children and their parents, as well as lower parental food allergy-related self-efficacy.
An additional study exploring the mental impact of pediatric food allergy suggests that anxiety is an important target of food allergy-related psychosocial assessment and intervention.
"In my work with children and adolescents with food allergy, families often emphasize the unique anxiety imposed by managing food allergy across a range of day-to-day situations. This is distinct from general forms of anxiety, as it is typically limited to situations where allergens are present, and therefore likely requires a tailored intervention approach to achieve meaningful improvement in symptoms. These clinical observations were supported by our research study, which found that anxiety about allergic reactions was more strongly associated with food allergy management burden than with general anxiety symptoms, suggesting that patients experiencing food allergy-related anxiety may benefit from brief, more targeted psychosocial interventions directly applicable to food allergy, as opposed to treatment for anxiety at-large," said lead author Melissa L. Engel, PhD.
In a multisite, racially, ethnically, socioeconomically and geographically diverse observational food allergy cohort, Scales of Food Allergy Anxiety (SOFAA) were concurrently administered to children 8-18 years of age with physician-diagnosed food allergy and their parents. Parents completed the food allergy Quality of Life-Parental Burden (FAQL-PB) and PROMIS-Anxiety Parent-Proxy. Using structural equation models, researchers jointly estimated the effects of demographic and clinical factors on each measure.
The parent-proxy and child-reported SOFAA scores were strongly correlated in the cohort. The research found that the concordance between reporters was high for all items, irrespective of the child's age. Both food allergy anxiety and parent-child concordance were highest around age 14, and SOFAA scores were higher among Black children, female participants and those with more FAs. Parent-proxy SOFAA scores were much more strongly associated with FAQL-PB compared to PROMIS-Anxiety scores. The SOFAA demonstrated a high concordance across parent-proxy reports and child-reports and was psychometrically robust in the diverse sample. Black youth, female participants, adolescents and patients with more food allergies may be at heightened risk for food allergy -related anxiety. The relatively low correlations between the SOFAA and PROMIS-Anxiety measures highlight that food allergy anxiety is a unique anxiety subtype, warranting its own assessment and tailored interventions.
Visit aaaai.org to learn more about food allergies. Research presented at the 2025 AAAAI / WAO Joint Congress, February 28 – March 3 in San Diego, CA, is published in an online supplement to The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI).
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) is the leading membership organization of more than 7,100 allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists and other professionals with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic and immunologic diseases. Established in 1943, the AAAAI is the go-to resource for patients living with allergies, asthma and immune deficiency disorders.
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Candace Archie, The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, (414) 272-6071, [email protected], aaaai.org
SOURCE The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
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