Schools and Bullying

Social interactions play a pivotal role in child development, especially those taking place within the school context. However, growing evidence suggests that food allergy may make children more vulnerable in social situations to social ostracism or bullying in school. A study by Shemesh and colleagues found that 31.5% of children aged 8 to 17 years reported they were bullied specifically because of their food allergy. Similarly, work by Gupta and colleagues reported that 43% of students with food allergy aged 14 to 22 years old reported they were bullied at school because of their food allergy. Furthermore, a recent Italian study found children aged 8 to 19 years with food allergy were twice as likely to be bullied as their nonfood-allergic peers. In their study, Shemesh and colleagues noted that 80% of children who were bullied because of a food allergy were bullied by a classmate. This is particularly alarming, because school classmates typically spend many hours each day together. In this case, bullying consisted mostly of threats with food and verbal teasing. Children may not know that intentionally exposing a food-allergic child to their allergen could be dangerous and lead to a life-threatening reaction. As such, is important to make sure that an action plan is in place at school in the event of a reaction. Another study by Lieberman and colleagues reported that 82% of bullying episodes occurred while at school and 21% of those who were bullied were bullied by teachers or school staff. Furthermore, Gupta and colleagues also reported that 38% of respondents desired better support for their food allergy while at school. A longitudinal evaluation of food allergy-related bullying found that when parents initiated a dialogue with school personnel regarding their child’s bullying, such bullying was less likely to recur. However, if teachers and students are not aware of bullying or the potential severity of food allergy, food-allergy related bullying is likely to remain ignored or unaddressed. This can provoke unneeded stress and anxiety for the child and put him or her in a potentially dangerous situation.

Social Activities/Dining Out

Although school constitutes a key social environment for children, food allergy often impacts other activities outside of the home, such as sporting events and restaurant dining. A systematic review by Cummings and colleagues outlined multiple ways in which having a child with food allergies in the household significantly impacts family activities. When outside the relatively controlled home environment, children must be vigilant in making sure foods do not contain their allergen(s), since roughly half of fatal reactions result from food consumed away from home. A study by Avery and colleagues investigated quality of life among children with peanut allergy compared to children with type 1 diabetes and found that anxiety was particularly elevated among children with peanut allergy at social events such as birthday parties, holiday parties, and on public transport. Remarkably, this study also found that when compared to children with type 1 diabetes, children with peanut allergy experienced significantly greater anxiety and impaired quality of life.

Multiple studies have found food allergy to particularly limit quality of life in the context of dining out. When asked about their dining habits, most children surveyed by Avery and colleagues noted that they frequently visit the same restaurant, because they know their food allergy will be catered for, putting them at ease. For young children, caregivers are often the ones making decisions about what their child eats. In a study by Bollinger and colleagues, it was reported that 16% of caregivers of food-allergic children avoided going to restaurants because of their child’s food allergy. Other social activities impacted by food allergy were also recorded. Five percent of caregivers avoided family outings, and 6% avoided going out of town or on vacation because of food allergy. Although 11% reported avoiding letting their child play at a friend’s house, 11% avoided school parties and sports; 10% avoided letting their child go to birthday parties, and 26% avoided letting their child go to camp. These missed social activities may put additional stress on the food-allergic child, and lead to increased feelings of isolation.

Meals and Nutrition

Although there are many dangers when eating outside of the home with a food-allergic child, meal planning within the home also becomes more challenging and time-consuming. Caregivers must avoid using the allergen while cooking the meal, and this often means they must plan far in advance when going to the grocery store or visit specialty stores. The extra time it takes planning and picking out items for the meal can add time and stress to the caregiver’s daily activities. Regarding meal preparation at home, Bollinger and colleagues found that 76% of caregivers reported that a child’s food allergies significantly impacted grocery shopping behaviors, while 60% of caregivers reported food allergies significantly impacted meal planning for their family. These researchers also found that 67% of respondents reported that food allergies significantly impacted meal preparation, and 76% reported that food allergies significantly impacted meals or snacks on the run. Daily activities such as grocery shopping and meal preparation that are easy for most families can cause families with a food-allergic child to become overwhelmed and stressed. In addition to meal planning, another source of stress for caregivers is their child’s diet. A study by Springston and colleagues assessed food allergy-related quality of life among 1126 caregivers of food-allergic children. Twenty-nine percent of caregivers were extremely troubled by concerns for their child’s health due to food allergy, while 22.3% were extremely troubled by concerns for their child’s nutrition. Because of the absence of curative treatment options for food allergy, many caregivers are told by their physician to have their child avoid the food. Particular concern may arise when children are allergic to more than one food or a food that is an ingredient found in many other foods. In these cases, parents may fear that avoiding the food(s) will lead to nutritional deficiencies in the child’s diet, leading to additional parental concern about the degree to which their child is getting well-balanced meals.

Parental Emotions

Many studies have examined familial knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs toward food allergy, including how differences in parenting styles can lead to strained relationships between parents of children with food allergy. A study conducted by Gupta and colleagues found that 25% of parents reported that their child’s food allergy caused strain in their marriage or primary relationship. Mothers are often charged with preparing meals for the child in and out of the home. Some mothers even go as far as quitting their job to allow for more time to make sure their child is safe. Mothers tend to have a more protective approach to food allergy and are more likely to be hypervigilant regarding allergen avoidance. It is within this context that a recent study found mothers to have impaired food allergy-related quality of life relative to fathers, despite reporting greater empowerment to care for their food-allergic child. This was hypothesized to be because of increased fear among mothers of their child’s potential exposure to allergens when outside of their immediate supervision (eg, at school, at a friend’s house). To this point, a recent qualitative study found mothers of children with severe food allergies to experience significant distress as the child gained independence and mothers were forced to place trust in others to ensure their child’s wellbeing. Misunderstanding and perceived disregard for a child’s food allergy is a major source of stress for parents. Past work has also found that mothers can feel unfairly labeled by other family members as neurotic and overprotective when it comes to their child’s food allergy when they engage in efforts to prevent their child’s exposure to food allergens. In fact, a recent study suggested that maternal quality of life is more strongly impacted by such social negativity regarding their child’s food allergy than by the social support gleaned through social relationships. As such, while children and their caregivers should be educated about food allergy management and preparedness, they must also be prepared to educate the people around them, including family and friends. Such efforts may help alleviate tension stemming from misunderstandings about the potential seriousness of a food-allergic reaction.

Raising a child with food allergy can not only result in relationship problems between parents, but can also adversely impact the emotional well-being of parents on a more individual level. A study by King and colleagues reviewed the impact of peanut allergy on anxiety, stress, and quality of life in families in the United Kingdom. Mothers of food-allergic children rated their own physical and psychological quality of life worse than fathers. It was also reported that fathers had lower scores of stress and anxiety then mothers did. Furthermore, when asked to what degree having a peanut allergy adversely impacted their child’s quality of life, mothers perceived their child’s peanut allergy as having a more adverse impact on quality of life than did the child’s father, siblings, or the food-allergic child him/herself. A study by Warren and colleagues reported that fathers generally reported increased food allergy caregiver quality of life when their children lacked a history of severe allergic reactions and when they felt that they had ample social support and resources to care for their child. Although each of these factors also served as significant predictors of increased quality of life among mothers, perceptions of ample social support and resources had a greater impact on maternal quality of life than on paternal quality of life, whereas the severity of a child’s food allergy had a reduced impact on mothers relative to fathers.

A child’s food allergy type has been found to predict systematic differences in parental food allergy-related quality of life. Specifically, allergies to ubiquitous foods like milk and egg more negatively impact parental quality of life than allergies to more easily avoidable foods like fin fish. These findings are consistent with work by Howe and colleagues, which also found presence of multiple food allergies and history of severe reactions to be associated with decreased parental quality of life. A study by Annunziato and colleagues of 454 caretakers assessed mental health needs and utilization by food allergy families. This study found that 32% of food allergy caretakers reported levels of distress above the predefined clinical threshold score, and 70% reported that mental health services would have been useful to them. However, only 23% of caregivers sought mental health care for their distress from their child’s food allergy. These findings suggest that pediatricians should consider how they might more effectively connect caregivers of children with food allergy to mental health services when appropriate.

Child’s Emotions

Food allergy has an impact on the emotional well-being of families and caregivers as well as on the affected child. A food allergy diagnosis requires children to constantly be aware of their surroundings at school, sporting events, family parties, and even in their own home. Without a proven treatment, children are forced to resort to strict allergen avoidance while also having a plan for accidental exposure in order to manage their food allergy. This places a large amount of stress on the child, especially in situations where the caregiver is not around and the child must decide for himself or herself what is safe to ingest. However, there can be some positive aspects to having a food allergy. For example, Gupta and colleagues surveyed 14- to 22-years-olds on risk-taking behaviors and found that most adolescents surveyed reported that living with a food allergy made them more responsible, empathetic to others with special needs, and a better advocate for themselves and others.

Many factors, including gender and age, play a role in determining quality of life among individuals with food allergy. King and colleagues reported that as compared with their female siblings, girls with peanut allergy reported significantly reduced overall quality of life as well as within multiple subdomains, including at school and relating to physical health. However, this study found that male students reported their peanut allergy only impacted their quality of life at school. Interestingly, when a group of Swedish parents answered questionnaires assessing health-related quality of life among their children with food allergy, girls with food allergy were found to have poorer parent-reported mental health due to their food allergy, whereas boys had worse parent-reported physical functioning and general health-related quality of life due to their food allergy. These findings suggest that further examination of such gender differences may inform future interventions targeting food allergy-related quality of life.

The age of a child can also have an effect on parental perspectives of the child’s quality of life. Marklund and colleagues found that in general, parents reported that a child’s food allergy more negatively impacts everyday family activities at younger ages. Warren and colleagues found that among mothers, quality of life increased from age 2 to age 13 and then declined thereafter, whereas child age had no effect on paternal quality of life. As children enter adolescence, they tend to become more educated and aware of their food allergy and in turn manage it more independently. However, recent cross-sectional work suggests that this transition may be accompanied by increased anxiety as adolescents assume greater self-management of their condition. Additional longitudinal studies are needed in order to more fully understand how quality of life may change across development among both children with food allergy and their caregivers.

Severity of reaction and reaction history can be important factors to consider when evaluating the quality of life of a food-allergic individual as well. Past work has found presence of a severe food allergy reaction history to have mixed effects on quality of life among children and their caregivers. One such study by Bollinger and colleagues reported that a history of anaphylaxis had no impact on the quality of life of either the child or his or her caregivers. Another recent study of a European food allergy cohort found that although a child’s anaphylaxis history was not predictive of his or her quality of life, his or her own perceptions of the severity of his or her food allergy were significantly associated with quality of life. These findings are consistent with a qualitative study that found that if the child was too young at the time of an allergic reaction to remember it, then it was not likely to impact the child, whereas the occurrence of such reactions did substantially impact parental well-being.

Experiencing or observing the symptoms of a severe anaphylactic reaction can be traumatic, and some have suggested that such events can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a wide range of symptoms for allergic reactions, ranging from flushed face, to gastrointestinal distress, to loss of consciousness. One study by Marklund and colleagues reported that parents of children who showed gastrointestinal distress during their allergic reaction were more emotionally impacted by the reaction then when other symptoms were present. On the other hand, parents reported a better sense of well-being regarding their child if the child’s allergic reaction included symptoms that would be considered more severe such as anaphylaxis or trouble breathing. Another recent paper found that increased reaction severity was a significant predictor of decreased parental quality of life for both mothers and fathers of children with food allergy.

Recently, attention has been turned to teenagers and college-aged individuals who have food allergy due in part to their relatively high rates of fatal reactions relative to other age groups. It has been reported that this age group tends to take the most risks when it comes to their food allergy. A study by Greenhawt and colleagues of 513 college students at the University of Michigan reported that only 39.7% of respondents with a food allergy regularly avoided their food allergen. What’s more, only 6.6% of students reported that they always carry their epinephrine autoinjector with them. This becomes dangerous in college, because many freshmen do not cook for themselves, instead eating most of their meals in the dining hall or at restaurants. Greenhawt and colleagues also found that dining halls themselves did not take adequate precautions, reporting that only 11.5% of surveyed students stated dining hall foods were always labeled for allergen content. Such inconsistencies can cause confusion for students trying to decipher whether a meal contains their allergen. Furthermore, most school dining hall staff are student employees who may not have proper knowledge about food allergy and cross-contamination. When students were asked why they engaged in risky behaviors, such as not always avoiding their food allergen, 37.6% mentioned they had no history of severe reactions. However, research shows that fatal reactions are not always preceded by a severe reaction. When asked about support preferences, the majority of students reported needing more public awareness about food allergy. More research is needed on the impact this risk-taking behavior has on quality of life, especially as adolescents begin to live on their own.

Although quality of life has been repeatedly shown to be adversely affected by childhood food allergy, few interventions have been evaluated that aim to improve quality of life among families with food allergy. One such intervention provided parents of children with food allergy with 3 nurse-facilitated counseling sessions that promoted self-regulation for chronic disease management. Researchers found that parental quality of life, including indicators of frustration, helplessness, anxiety, and confidence significantly improved after receiving the intervention. Another study found a half-day group food allergy education and skills-training workshop for children with food allergy and their parents to be effective in improving parental quality of life and perceived competence in coping with food allergy. Furthermore, a recent cross-sectional study assessing food allergy-related quality of life found that caregivers of children with food allergy who had undergone an oral food challenge had significantly increased quality of life compared with caregivers whose children had not undergone an oral food challenge. Interestingly, quality of life did not differ among parents of children who underwent an oral food challenge and passed (eg, did not react) compared with parents of children who underwent an oral food challenge and did not pass (eg, did react). Although prospective replication studies are needed, this suggests that confirmatory oral food challenge may not only be the gold standard for food allergy diagnosis, but also a useful intervention to improve caregiver quality of life. However, additional interventions should be evaluated in order to improve quality of life among both food-allergic children and their caregivers.