Quality of life of food allergic patients

PhD ceremony: Ms. J.L. van der Velde, 11.00 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Quality of life of food allergic patients

Promotor(s): prof. A.E.J. Dubois, prof. E.J. Duiverman

Faculty: Medical Sciences

Food allergy is a common disorder and affects about 6-8% of children and 3-4% of adults. Symptoms of food allergy may involve the skin, gastro-intestinal tract and respiratory tract. Food allergy may even cause shock, which can be fatal. The only proven therapy is to carefully avoid the causal food(s). Therefore, patients always need to take precautions to prevent allergen exposure and high levels of anxiety of an allergic reaction may exist. Consequently, these factors may influence their quality of life.

This thesis describes the importance, reliability and outcome of quality of life questionnaires for food allergic patients. It is important to measure the quality of life of food allergic patients, because it gives clinicians insight into the specific problems these patients are facing. Additionally, quality of life questionnaires are used to evaluate the impact of diagnostic or therapeutic interventions on quality of life. Finally, these measurements may help clinicians to improve the quality of life of food allergic patients. The current study illustrates that the previously developed quality of life questionnaires for food allergic patients (the FAQLQs) are reliable and relevant instruments. It was also shown that the quality of life of many food allergic patients improves following a double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge (the best test for diagnosing food allergy) and subsequent changes in management. Furthermore, children and their parents were found to report differently on the child’s quality of life. Based on our study, we recommended to include child and parent reports in clinical trials and clinical decision making.