Abstract
BackgroundPrevalence of allergy has steeply increased during the past few decades, particularly in high-income countries. The development of atopy could present different characteristics in internationally adopted children with regard to incidence, specific patterns of allergies and timing of occurrence. We aimed to investigate the occurrence of allergic diseases among adopted children in Italy.MethodsWe collected demographic information, preadoption immunization data, infectious diseases screening results, immunological status, and performed hematological and biochemical tests according to a standardized protocol in 108 adopted children.ResultsAt initial visit (mean age was 5.7 ± 3.2 years), 48 children displayed elevated total serum IgE levels with a prevalence of 56.5% (95%CI: 0.45; 0.67). The prevalences of children screened positive for one or more food allergens and inhalants were 30.1% (95%CI: 19.9%; 42.0%) and 34.3% (95%CI: 23.3%; 46.6%) respectively, only 9 children exhibited abnormal absolute eosinophil counts, 23 (21.3%) had a parasitic infection and 60 (55.6%) had received at least one dose of vaccine.ConclusionsChildren without medical records or with a past medical history suggestive of atopy should perform a thorough allergy evaluation at the time of adoption. Our study offers also a glimpse at the vaccination status and immune-allergic profiles of recent migrant children in Italy.
Highlights
Prevalence of allergy has steeply increased during the past few decades, in high-income countries
If on the one hand, migrants are suddenly exposed to a new composition of environment and allergens and as result may develop higher prevalence of allergies, on the other one they should be more protected from allergic diseases compared to non-migrants because of their richer
Few data are presently available in children [11, 12]. These few data suggest that the development of atopy could present different characteristics in children than in adults both with regard to specific patterns of allergies and to the timing of occurrence [7]
Summary
Prevalence of allergy has steeply increased during the past few decades, in high-income countries. In the last 20 years, we have observed an increase in the prevalence of allergy in Italy, especially among children (from 7 to 25%) [7], making allergy one of the most frequent chronic diseases of the pediatric age in developed countries. This may reflect changes in population composition due to the rising number of immigrants and/or to an increase in the exposure from the nonimmigrant population to other additional risk factors (e.g. climate change, bacterial exposure). These few data suggest that the development of atopy could present different characteristics in children than in adults both with regard to specific patterns of allergies and to the timing of occurrence [7]
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