Prevalence of common food allergies in Erbil Province, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

<sec> Background Nowadays food allergy is the public health problem worldwide and prevalence of food allergy was increased that causes morbidity, there is no prevalence study to determine and reported most of the food allergen in Erbil City. </sec><sec> Aims To determine the prevalence of most common food allergy in Erbil City, and determination of intensity of allergic response among allergic patients against 36 identified food allergens items. </sec><sec> Methods A total number of 170 patients with suspected of food allergy were checked in the present study. The study was carried out for patients who visited the private clinical sectors in between (2018–2020), in Erbil Province, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Determination of specific IgE (s-IgE) antibody was examined for suspected patients using “Food Iraq1” kit (Catalog no: DP 3436-1601-1 E, IVD-approved, and CE-certified EUROLINE immunoblot), contains strip for 36 different allergens. </sec><sec> Results The present study illustrated that the food allergy prevalence (measured by specific IgE concentration). The rate of occurrence of food allergy is 10% among males and 12.35% among females. Furthermore, data also revealed that allergy prevalence was 12.35% among individuals aged 13–30 and 10% among those 31–52 years. Seafood mix (13.15%), grain mix (9.21%) and soybean (6.57%) in both male and female patients are the highest allergic response to food allergens often reported among these products respectively with different percentages. The most susceptible food allergens are the combination of fish (12.76%), chicken (7.44%), garlic and sesame (5.31%). Seafood mix, chicken and grain mix showed the highest incidence of food allergies respectively, with regard to aged groups. </sec><sec> Conclusions Based on the results in present study, we conclude that, the prevalence of food allergy was differing in between males and females in different age groups. Our study reached to that, there are no association between food allergens in males and age group of 13–30 years, but in other hand the association between food allergens in females and age group 31–52 years observed. </sec>