Prevalence of food allergies (FA) and asthma and associated risk factors in the STRONG Kids Program (SKP)

Abstract

FA are most prevalent in children under age five and are linked to family history, ethnicity, early‐life feeding practices, absence of breastfeeding (BF) and presence of other atopic diseases, including asthma. Chi‐squaredtests were used to compare risk factors in children (ages 3–5) with and without FA enrolled in SKP, a longitudinal study of childhood obesity and health within an ecological framework. In the SKP cohort (n=423), 12% of kids had FA or sensitivity and 8.5% were diagnosed with asthma. Gender, BMI percentile and ethnicity were not associated with risk of allergy. Children with FA were three‐times more likely to have asthma (95% CI 1.48–7.29, p=0.003) and other chronic diseases (95% CI 1.95–6.81, p<0.0001). Peanut, fruit and cow's milk allergies were most common in the SKP cohort (4.3%, 3.0%, and 2.8% respectively). Family history of FA was associated with allergy occurrence in children (p<0.0001). BF longer than six months was associated with a lower occurrence of soy (p=0.02) and fruit (p=0.03) allergies, but no protective effect against other FA was observed (p=0.18). Family history, lack of BF and other chronic conditions were risk factors for FA in SKP participants.Grant Funding Source: Supported by USDA 2011–67001‐30101