Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017:2017:2051916.
doi: 10.1155/2017/2051916. Epub 2017 May 16.

Exploring the Concern about Food Allergies among Secondary School and University Students in Ontario, Canada: A Descriptive Analysis

Shannon E Majowicz  1 , James K H Jung  1 , Sarah M Courtney  1 , Daniel W Harrington  1   2
Affiliations

Exploring the Concern about Food Allergies among Secondary School and University Students in Ontario, Canada: A Descriptive Analysis

Shannon E Majowicz et al. J Allergy (Cairo). 2017.

Abstract

Our objective was to explore the perceived risk of food allergies among students in Ontario, Canada. We analyzed blinding questions ("I am concerned about food allergies"; "food allergies are currently a big threat to my health") from three existing food safety surveys, given to high school and university undergraduate students (n = 3,451) circa February 2015, using descriptive analysis, and explored how concern related to demographics and self-reported cooking ability using linear regression. Overall, high school students were neutral in their concern, although Food and Nutrition students specifically were significantly less concerned (p = 0.002) than high school students overall. University undergraduates were moderately unconcerned about food allergies. Concern was highest in younger students, decreasing between 13 and 18 years of age and plateauing between 19 and 23 years. Among students aged 13-18 years, concern was higher among those who worked or volunteered in a daycare and who had previously taken a food preparation course. Among students aged 19-23 years, concern was higher among females and those with less advanced cooking abilities. Concern was significantly correlated with perceiving food allergies as a personal threat. This study offers a first exploration of perceived risk of food allergies among this demographic and can guide future, more rigorous assessments.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean agreement with the statement “I am concerned about food allergies” (“stated concern,” 5-point scale; 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree) by age, among high school and university undergraduate participants (Ontario, Canada), circa February 2015 (n = 3,451).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean agreement with the statement “I am concerned about food allergies” (“stated concern,” 5-point scale; 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree), shown by whether students felt “food allergies are currently a big threat to my health” (5-point scale; 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree) among high school and university undergraduate participants (Ontario, Canada), circa February 2015 (n = 515).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Harrington D. W., Elliott S. J., Clarke A. E., Ben-Shoshan M., Godefroy S. Exploring the determinants of the perceived risk of food allergies in Canada. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. 2012;18(6):1338–1358. doi: 10.1080/10807039.2012.722857. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Soller L., Ben-Shoshan M., Harrington D. W., et al. Adjusting for nonresponse bias corrects overestimates of food allergy prevalence. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. 2015;3(2):291–293.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2014.11.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fenton N. E., Elliott S. J., Cicutto L., Clarke A. E., Harada L., McPhee E. Illustrating risk: anaphylaxis through the eyes of the food-allergic child. Risk Analysis. 2011;31(1):171–183. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01488.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dean J., Fenton N. E., Shannon S., Elliott S. J., Clarke A. Disclosing food allergy status in schools: health-related stigma among school children in Ontario. Health and Social Care in the Community. 2016;24(5):e43–e52. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12244. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Protudjer J. L. P., Jansson S. A., Middelveld R., et al. Impaired health-related quality of life in adolescents with allergy to staple foods. Clinical and Translational Allergy. 2016;6(37, article 37) doi: 10.1186/s13601-016-0128-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources