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. 2020 Oct;8(9):3066-3073.e6.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2020.04.058. Epub 2020 May 4.

Egg Allergy in US Children

Waheeda Samady  1 , Christopher Warren  2 , Julie Wang  3 , Rajeshree Das  4 , Ruchi S Gupta  5
Affiliations

Egg Allergy in US Children

Waheeda Samady et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Egg allergy is common in young children (<5 years) and has significant negative impacts on quality of life.

Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize egg allergy prevalence, severity, baked egg tolerance, and other associated factors in a large US cohort.

Methods: A national cross-sectional survey was administered from October 2015 to September 2016, resulting in complete parent-proxy responses for 38,408 children. Weighted proportions were estimated to compare egg allergy prevalence and characteristics between key subpopulations.

Results: The overall prevalence of current, convincingly egg allergy was 0.9% among all children and 1.3% among children <5 years. Black children were over-represented among children with egg allergy, accounting for 23.4% (95% confidence interval: 13.1-38.4) of egg-allergic children despite comprising 13.2% (12.3-14.2) of the US pediatric population. Among children with egg allergy, 64.2% reported baked egg tolerance and 60.2% had allergy to other foods, with 29.3% having peanut allergy. Asthma was more prevalent in children with an egg allergy than children with other top 8 food allergies (46.5% [35.8-57.4] vs 33.2% [29.6-37.0], P < .05). Among children with current egg allergy, those with baked egg tolerance reported that their food allergy resulted in significantly reduced psychosocial burden, relative to their baked egg-allergic counterparts (M = 3.1 [2.9-3.3] vs M = 3.7 [3.5-3.9]).

Conclusions: Egg allergy is common amongst young children. Nearly two-thirds of children with egg allergy reported baked egg tolerance. Increased efforts are needed to ensure that children with egg allergy are appropriately evaluated as many have comorbid allergic disease and determination of baked egg tolerance may improve quality of life.

Keywords: Atopy; Egg allergy; Food allergy; Pediatrics; Prevalence.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Specific Reaction Symptoms used to Characterize “Convincing” Egg Allergy List of allergic reaction symptoms highlighting stringent symptoms indicative of convincing food allergy. All symptoms listed are offered as answer choices in the survey. Symptoms in bold italics comprised our expert panel’s stringent symptom list. A convincing food allergy required the patient report of at least 1 stringent symptom during the child’s most severe reaction to a given food. A severe reaction consisted of a parent report of at least 2 stringent symptoms from 2 different body systems during a child’s most severe reaction to a given food.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Age-specific Prevalence of Current Egg Allergy by Food Allergy Category
Figure 3
Figure 3. Comparison of Outcomes between Baked Egg Tolerant vs Baked Egg Allergic Children
Hx: History Sx: Symptoms Rxn: Reaction W/ EAI: With Epinephrine Auto Injector
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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