High anxiety and health-related quality of life in families with children with food allergy during coronavirus disease 2019

Background: Food allergy has a known effect on quality of life (QoL), but this has not been extensively studied during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Objective: To characterize the levels of anxiety of mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years with food allergy compared with families of children without a food allergy and the health-related QoL among children with food allergy during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Methods: In a mixed-methods study, Canadian mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years with (cases) and without (controls) food allergy provided demographic data and completed age-appropriate anxiety questionnaires between April 14, 2020, and April 28, 2020. The cases also provided food allergy-related data and completed the Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire. In-depth interviews were subsequently conducted with purposefully selected cases. Results: In a total of 580 participants, 5.5% were cases and 94.5% were controls. For mothers of children aged 0 to 1.5 years, anxiety levels did not differ between cases and controls. For mothers of children aged 1.5 to 8 years, anxiety levels were higher in cases vs controls (P < .05). Among the cases, neither overall nor domainspecific Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire scores differed between age groups (0-3 vs 4-7 years), even after adjustment for confounding variables, including childcare during the pandemic. Qualitatively, the following 3 themes were identified: unexpected challenges of food shopping; less food-related food anxiety during the pandemic; and differences and delays in food allergy testing and therapy. Conclusion: Mothers of children with food allergy reported high anxiety and poor health-related QoL. Yet, qualitatively, day-to-day food allergy management was better during the pandemic. (C) 2020 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study compared the anxiety levels and health-related quality of life of mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years with food allergy during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Mothers of children with food allergy reported higher anxiety levels compared to controls, but there were no significant differences in Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire scores between different age groups. Interestingly, the qualitative findings suggested that day-to-day food allergy management was better during the pandemic for children with food allergy.