Living with and Caring for People with Multiple Food Allergies: A Qualitative Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Purpose: The quality of life (QoL) impact of food allergies extends beyond severe allergic reactions, as food avoidance can permeate the daily lives of individuals with food allergies and their caregivers. People with multiple food allergies may experience a greater impact on QoL than people with a single food allergy, but there is limited evidence available. The aim of the study was to provide insight into the lived experiences of adults, teenagers, children, and caregivers of children with multiple food allergies. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted of people with multiple food allergies and their caregivers (n = 20) in the United States, including 10 adults, 5 teenagers, and 5 caregivers of children. Patterns in responses were explored using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were developed by the researchers to convey the experiences of people with food allergies and QoL impact: preparedness and allergen avoidance results in a loss of spontaneity; emotional impact varies by person and for each person; participating in society involves speaking up and trusting others; and food is more than nutrition. In addition, 3 themes were identified that convey the experiences of caregivers: looking out for your child’s safety is an emotional balancing act; limitations on what you can do on your own and as a family; and creating a safe and fulfilling environment can be time-consuming and costly. Conclusion: These findings highlight that people with multiple food allergies experience social limitations, stress about food safety and allergen avoidance, and restrictions on freedom. Caregiver QoL is impacted by the need to navigate social, emotional, and practical implications of caring for a child with multiple food allergies. Plain Language Summary: People with food allergies must constantly make an effort to avoid the foods they are allergic to. Having an allergy to more than 1 type of food (for example, peanuts, eggs, or milk) can be even more difficult. In this study, we interviewed adults and teenagers with food allergies, as well as parents of children with food allergies, about how having an allergy to more than 1 type of food affects their daily lives. We found that people with more than 1 food allergy often had stress and anxiety. They also had to change the way they traveled or socialized. Parents caring for a child with food allergies were also impacted. Parents had to look out for their child’s safety and made changes to family plans and activities. The lives of people with food allergies and their families may be improved by treatments or interventions that can lower the risk of allergic reactions. Keywords: food hypersensitivity, quality of life, patients, caregivers, multiple food allergies A Letter to the Editor has been published for this article .
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.013 | 0.015 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.012 | 0.008 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".