Impact of Food Allergy on Adolescent’s Quality of Life

Abstract

Background: Food allergy is a major problem in both developed and developing countries and seems to increase over the past 10–15 years. Due to the incomplete understanding of the effects of food allergy on health-related quality of life (HRQL) among adolescents. This study aimed to identify the impact of food allergy on adolescent’s quality of life. Method: In this cross-sectional study, 144 adolescents aged 12–18 years who objectively-diagnosed having food allergy were included. Adolescents were interviewed and completed questionnaire sheet consisted of two parts, the first part for personal data and the second part included questions about types of allergic foods, signs and symptoms and complications of allergy, also they completed specific food allergy quality of life questionnaire-teenager form. Results: Shows that, the average score of the food allergies scale is (167.93), which is in the high range. The average quality of life measure for adolescents is 105.42 degrees, which is considereda low level of quality of life as a whole. There is a negative correlation between food allergies in adolescents and the quality of life dimensions at the level of significance p= 0.05, which highlights the importance of the current study. Conclusions: The present study concluded that food allergy has a high impact on the quality of life of adolescents and there are negative correlations between adolescent food allergies and the quality of life from all dimensions.