Abstract
Our objective was to explore the perceived risk of food allergies among students in Ontario, Canada. We analyzed blinding questions (“I am concerned about food allergies”; “food allergies are currently a big threat to my health”) from three existing food safety surveys, given to high school and university undergraduate students (n = 3,451) circa February 2015, using descriptive analysis, and explored how concern related to demographics and self-reported cooking ability using linear regression. Overall, high school students were neutral in their concern, although Food and Nutrition students specifically were significantly less concerned (p = 0.002) than high school students overall. University undergraduates were moderately unconcerned about food allergies. Concern was highest in younger students, decreasing between 13 and 18 years of age and plateauing between 19 and 23 years. Among students aged 13–18 years, concern was higher among those who worked or volunteered in a daycare and who had previously taken a food preparation course. Among students aged 19–23 years, concern was higher among females and those with less advanced cooking abilities. Concern was significantly correlated with perceiving food allergies as a personal threat. This study offers a first exploration of perceived risk of food allergies among this demographic and can guide future, more rigorous assessments.
Highlights
Food allergies are a growing public health concern in many countries [1]
We analyzed blinding questions (“I am concerned about food allergies”; “food allergies are currently a big threat to my health”) from three existing food safety surveys, given to high school and university undergraduate students (n = 3,451) circa February 2015, using descriptive analysis, and explored how concern related to demographics and self-reported cooking ability using linear regression
The associations between individual predictors and stated concern are shown in Table 3; being female, working, or volunteering in a daycare or other location where they interact with children, handling food for the public, and having previously taken a food preparation course were all individually significantly associated with
Summary
Food allergies are a growing public health concern in many countries [1]. In Canada, the prevalence of food allergies is estimated to be 7.5 percent, as estimated by objective measures [2], yet almost 20 percent of individuals self-report having a food allergic person living in their home, and an additional 30 percent report being indirectly affected by food allergies, including serving, preparing, or buying foods for allergic individuals or for an allergen-controlled environment, such as a school with a peanut ban [1]. Youth and young adults are a unique group in that they are generally growing in autonomy from their parents and increasingly making independent decisions about how to behave with respect to risks; in the realm of food, for example, youth and young adults often make risky food consumption and food handling choices [9,10,11,12,13]. Those with food allergies among this group are likely to engage in risk taking with respect to their allergies (e.g., not carrying an epinephrine autoinjector [14]). There is an increased likelihood that youth and young adults are indirectly affected by food allergies as they take on responsibilities that may have previously been the purview of parents or caregivers, including buying, preparing, or serving foods to others that may have food
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