Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire developed

Monday, 02 March 2009 20:22

The first disease-specific Quality of Life Questionnaire for adults with food allergy has been developed and validated. It is designed to reflect the most important issues that food allergic patients have to face and, as it is short and easy to use, it may be a useful tool in future clinical research.

The questionnaire was developed from responses of twenty-two adults (18 years or older) with food allergy. From this, 29 items were identified as most important by 54 food allergic patients; the questionnaire was then validated by 100 other food allergic adults.  The items were scored on the range of 1 (not troubled) to 7 (extremely troubled).

The questionnaire also discriminates between patients who differ in severity of symptoms such as anaphylaxis versus no anaphylaxis, as well as those with multiple allergies.

Reference: Flokstra-de Blok BM et al. 2009 Allergy. Feb 10 [Epub ahead of print]