Likely questionnaire-diagnosed food allergy in 78, 890 adults from the northern Netherlands.

Cornelia Doriene Westerlaken-van Ginkel
Judith M Vonk
Bertine M J Flokstra-de Blok
Aline B Sprikkelman
Gerard H Koppelman
Anthony E J Dubois

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Publication date

January 2020

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0231818

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Journal

PLoS ONE

Abstract

BACKGROUND:It is challenging to define likely food allergy (FA) in large populations which limited the number of large studies regarding risk factors for FA. OBJECTIVE:We studied the prevalence and characteristics of self-reported FA (s-rFA) in the large, population-based Dutch Lifelines cohort and identified associated risk factors. METHODS:Likely food allergic cases (LikelyFA) were classified based on questionnaire reported characteristics consistent with FA. Subjects with atypical characteristics were classified as Indeterminate. We investigated 13 potential risk factors for LikelyFA such as birth mode and living on a farm and addressed health-related quality of life (H-RQOL). RESULTS:Of the 78, 890 subjects, 12.1% had s-rFA of which 4.0...