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Anaphylaxis is an acute and often severe systemic allergic reaction. The prevalence of food allergy has been increasing and is currently estimated at approximately 3.5%. Food allergic reactions account for one-third to one-half of anaphylaxis cases worldwide. It is estimated that approximately 30,000 food-related anaphylactic reactions are treated...
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Background
Food allergies are serious and potentially life-threatening, and often place a large burden on patients and their caregivers, including impacts on quality of life.
Objective
To assess the real-world patient burden of food allergies, using self-reported data available from the Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) Patient Registry (NC...
Citations
... The only treatment is avoidance of certain foods, as well as management of symptoms. The most common food allergies are to milk-protein, egg and nuts, but almost any food can cause allergic reactions (Arias et al., 2009). Allergic reactions to food typically occur shortly after exposure, with symptoms varying from mild oral itch to life-threatening anaphylaxis (a potentially fatal reaction involving multi-organ systems). ...
There is developing interest in issues of embodiment in studies of children, health and illness. We take our point of departure in the parent-child-health/illness triad to explore the embodied aspects of parental vigilance in parenting children who have a food allergy, utilizing the concept of inter-embodiment. Drawing on a focus group study with parents in Sweden the analysis reveals that this vigilance can be seen as the embodied manifestation of concern for children's bodies in perpetual liminality, when constantly exposed to allergens and the risk of becoming ill. We argue that the lens of inter-embodiment, with a focus on bodies in relation, captures how parents lived experience of managing food allergy intertwines with that of their children in the parent-child-health/illness triad. The analysis uncovers a form of embodied knowledge that is often not verbalized, offering potential for new understandings of parent-child relations that center on chronic child health conditions.
... Parenting, risk and food allergies Parents' experiences of child food allergy Food allergy affects life on a daily basis in profound ways as it is related to food and eating and can involve severe and even life-threatening reactions. The most common food allergies are to milk-protein, egg and nuts (Arias, Waserman, & Jordana, 2009), but the list of potential food allergens is much longer. Currently there is no cure or preventive treatment, and food allergy therefore requires constant vigilance to avoid the allergen(s). ...
Western culture can be seen as permeated by risk-consciousness. In particular, parents are under scrutiny in their roles as risk managers. In this article, we address parental experiences of children more at risk than other children, children with food allergy, and the management of allergy risk in everyday life. Drawing on a notion of risk as ‘situated’ in local everyday life, we argue that a further exploration of parental understandings of child food allergy risk would benefit from an analysis of studies across different local contexts. In this article, we draw on a secondary qualitative cross-cultural analysis of interview data from several studies of parents in Sweden and Scotland through 2006–2010, which focused on parents’ understandings of the nature of food allergy and the children’s management of the allergy risk. We found some common themes in the different data sets. First, parents depicted food allergy as life-threatening, a ‘death risk’ lurking in the background, more or less constantly present in different everyday situations, amounting to an existential condition in parenting. Second, they talked about food allergy risk as a relational phenomenon, meaning that the risk emerged in the encounter between the young person’s individual competence to manage allergy risk and the understandings of allergy risk in others – thus depending on contexts and interaction between several actors. Finally, the analysis showed that unpredictability and risk in constant flux are the prominent aspects of living with food allergy. We also discussed the ways risk and trust are related, as well as how the involvement of others can be seen as both a risk and a safeguard.
... The prevalence of food allergies is increasing; in the Western world up to 12% of children, depending on the definition, are affected (Burks et al. 2012). The most common food allergies among children are to milk, egg and nuts (Arias et al. 2009). Allergic reactions to food occur shortly after exposure, with symptoms varying from mild oral itching to the life-threatening reaction, anaphylaxis. ...
Potentially life-threatening food allergies are increasing among children in the Western world. Informed by childhood studies, this article explores young people's management of food allergy risk and highlights their agency in relation to food, eating and place. Drawing on individual interviews with 10 young people who took part in a larger multi-method study of young people's experiences of food allergies, the findings demonstrate that the management of health risks means, to some extent, trying to control the uncontrollable. A reaction can occur at any time and to experience a severe reaction entails a temporarily loss of control. The strategies the young people develop to avoid allergic reactions can be understood both as responses to this uncertainty and as manifestations of their agency. Their risk experiences vary with place; at school and in other public places they face social as well as health risks. What we see is not agency as a voluntary choice but that young people with food allergies experience tensions between their own competence to manage different types of risks and their dependence on others to adjust to their needs. Thus, the relational aspects of young people's agency come to the fore.
© 2015 The Author. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
... Food allergy is an increasing paediatric public health problem in the Western world, affecting up to 12 percent of the child population depending on definition (Burks et al., 2012). Although most foods can cause allergic reactions, the most common among children are allergies to milk, egg, peanut and tree nuts (Arias et al., 2009). Allergic reactions to food in children are usually immunoglobulin E (IgE) mediated 1 and occur shortly after exposure with symptoms varying from mild oral itch to life-threatening conditions. ...
Food allergy is an illness that requires constant risk management in everyday life. To date, there is no cure or preventive treatment, and the only way to manage the condition is therefore careful avoidance of the offending foodstuff and treatment of reactions when they occur. This article draws on a socio-cultural approach to explore parents' understandings and management of child food allergy in the context of everyday life, as 'situated' risk. A focus group study was carried out with 31 parents of children diagnosed with food allergy at two children's hospitals. The analysis of the focus group material reveals how the management of allergy risk seems to permeate most aspects of everyday life as well as how the parents draw on a dominant norm of risk avoidance as well as a counter-discourse of calculated risk taking. The patterns of risk management found in this study are discussed in terms of how risk avoidance and risk taking are intertwined and balanced in the context of moral parenthood.
The risk factors for food allergy (FA) include both genetic variants and environmental factors. Advances using both candidate-gene association studies and genome-wide approaches have led to the identification of FA-associated genes involved in immune responses and skin barrier functions. Epigenetic changes have also been associated with the risk of FA. In this chapter, we outline current understanding of the genetics, epigenetics and the interplay with environmental risk factors associated with FA. Future studies of gene-environment interactions, gene-gene interactions, and multi-omics integration may help shed light on the mechanisms of FA, and lead to improved diagnostic and treatment strategies.
Potentially life-threatening food allergies are increasing among children in the Western world. Informed by childhood studies, this chapter explores young people's management of food allergy risk and highlights their agency in relation to food, eating and place. Drawing on individual interviews with 10 young people who took part in a larger multi-methodological study of young people's experiences of food allergies, the findings demonstrates that the management of health risks means, to some extent, trying to control the uncontrollable. A reaction can occur at any time and to experience a severe reaction entails a temporarily loss of control.The strategies the young people develop to avoid allergic reactions can be understood both as responses to this uncertainty and as manifestations of their agency. Their risk experiences vary with place; at school and in other public places they face social as well as health risks. What we see is not agency as a voluntary choice but that young people with food allergies experience tensions between their own competence to manage different types of risks and their dependence on others to adjust to their needs. Thus, the relational aspects of young people's agency come to the fore. © 2015 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Depending on definition and academic discipline, home can refer to a place, a space, a feeling, or certain practices. House and home are often conflated, but the physical dwelling is only one dimension. Home can be shorthand for an ideal and comfortable haven but is also recognized, by feminist researchers for example, as a place where gender and age represent key dimensions for how members of a household view the meaning of home (Saunders and Williams 1988). Home is therefore understood as a multidimensional concept (see Mallet 2004 for a review). In this chapter we discuss where children and young people localize risks, as well as how they manage risks in different settings with reference to the home in particular. Following a brief review of children and young people’s understandings and management of risk in different settings, this chapter draws on two case studies involving health risks in everyday life. The case studies involve children and young people from Scotland who live with parents who smoke and those from Sweden who have a food allergy. These cases are then discussed in relation to the wider literature to illuminate issues such as gender, spatial risk management, and child–parent relations within the home.
Depending on definition and academic discipline, home can refer to a place, a space, a feeling, or certain practices. House and home are often conflated, but the physical dwelling is only one dimension. Home can be shorthand for an ideal and comfortable haven but is also recognized, by feminist researchers for example, as a place where gender and age represent key dimensions for how members of a household view the meaning of home (Saunders and Williams 1988). Home is therefore understood as a multidimensional concept (see Mallet 2004 for a review). In this chapter we discuss where children and young people localize risks, as well as how they manage risks in different settings with reference to the home in particular. Following a brief review of children and young people’s understandings and management of risk in different settings, this chapter draws on two case studies involving health risks in everyday life. The case studies involve children and young people from Scotland who live with parents who smoke and those from Sweden who have a food allergy. These cases are then discussed in relation to the wider literature to illuminate issues such as gender, spatial risk management, and child–parent relations within the home.
