Why families participate in clinical food allergy trials

Monday, 19 October 2009 13:29

Recent research has investigated a little-studied area of food allergy, seeking to understand the specific psychological factors that affect parents' decisions to allow their children to participate in clinical food allergy trials. Results showed it was those parents who had higher anxiety about negative outcomes from accidental ingestion who were more likely to consent to experimental therapy for their child.

The researchers questioned 65 parents of children with food allergies who were offered investigational oral immunotherapy in a regular outpatient clinic. Regardless of whether their parents agreed or declined to participate in the trials, the children had similar and typical distribution for gender, age, number of foods, severity and number of symptoms, and socioeconomic variables.

Parents who agreed to have their children participate in the trial reported a similar impact of food allergy on their child’s health-related quality of life as parents of children who did not volunteer for the study. However, those parents who volunteered were found to have a significantly higher perception of risk of their child having a severe, if not fatal, food allergy reaction. The study authors determined that using this model, they could accurately predict the likelihood of families taking part in immunotherapy in 90% of cases.

Reference: DunnGalvin et al. 2009. Pediatrics. Vol. 124(3) pp. e503-e509 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-3642)