Is peanut allergy really increasing in UK?

A large number of patient records held in the UK have been interrogated to determine the incidence, prevalence, and trends of General Practitioner–recorded diagnosis of peanut allergy.

The information used in the study came from a database containing records from 2,958,366 patients who were registered with 422 general practices in the United Kingdom in the years 2001 to 2005.

The researchers found the incidence rate of peanut allergy remained fairly stable during the study period, whereas the prevalence rate doubled. A significant inverse relationship between prevalence and socio-economic status was found.

Overall, the data suggest a much lower prevalence of peanut allergy than previous reports, however an under-recording of peanut allergy in General Practice may explain this.

Reference: Kotz et al. 2010. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2010.11.021