Food allergy in Catalonia: Clinical manifestations and its association with airborne allergens

Abstract

Background: Food allergy affects around 6% of the European population and its prevalence worldwide has been increasing in the last decades, but studies focused on investigating food allergy epidemiology in Europe are lacking.

Objective: The Cibus project was created to register the main culprit foods and their clinical manifestations in food allergic patients in Catalonia.

Methods: A specific online database was designed. Allergists from eight different Catalan hospitals registered the new diagnoses of food allergy.

Results: 618 food allergic patients were included. Egg and milk were the main elicitors in the early ages, while fruits and nuts were the most frequent in patients >14 years old. Fish was more frequent in children, while seafood and Anisakis allergy were more frequent in the >14-year-old group. Overall, peach was the most prevalent food eliciting an allergic reaction (10%). Food allergy diagnosis was reached using compatible clinical history and positive skin prick test to the involved food in 98% of cases. Globally, urticaria was the most frequently reported manifestation in our population (48.2%), followed by oral allergy syndrome (25.6%) and anaphylaxis (24.8%).

Conclusions: The Cibus project gives a full overview of the profile of food allergic patients in Catalonia and reinforces the predominance of plant food allergies in the Mediterranean area.

Keywords: Allergy diagnosis; Cross-sectional study; Food allergy; Food epidemiology; Online database.