Tuesday, 03 November 2009 09:10

Australian researchers recruited parents of 167 children with egg sensitization who attended a tertiary paediatric clinic. The parents were questioned to determine the effect of an oral challenge on their perceptions of their child's allergy. Perceptions of those parents whose children had not had an egg challenge were compared with those whose children had either positive or negative egg challenge tests, or no test. 

Parents whose children tested negative to the challenge reported significantly different responses in relation to expected changes to lifestyle than those whose children tested positive to the challenge. More parents in the negative group expected little or no future inconvenience for their child.

For six of the ten parameters included in the questionnaire, expectations concerning egg allergy in children who had been challenged were significantly better than those who had never been challenged, irrespective of the challenge outcome. Parameters included the effect on out-of-home care arrangements, the perception of being more severe as compared to other common childhood illnesses, whether they found egg allergy to be moderately or very stressful, and whether others treated the child differently.

Reference: Kemp et al. 2009. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Vol 20(7) pp. 648-653.