Egg Allergy in US Children

Waheeda Samady, Christopher Warren, Julie Wang, Rajeshree Das, Ruchi S. Gupta*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3066-3073.e6
JournalJournal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice
Volume8
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2020

Funding

Conflicts of interest: J. Wang receives research support from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , Aimmune , DBV Technologies , and Regeneron ; and consultancy fees from ALK Abello, DBV Technologies, and Genentech. R.S. Gupta reports receiving research support from The National Institute of Health (NIH) ( R21 ID # AI135705 , R01 ID# AI130348 , and U01 ID # AI138907 ), Allergy and Asthma Network , Rho Inc. , Stanford Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research , Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), Miller Family Foundation , Melchiorre Family Foundation , Aimmune Therapeutics , Mylan Specialty L.P. , UnitedHealth Group , Thermo Fisher Scientific , Genentech , and the National Confectioners Association (NCA); and serves as a medical consultant/advisor for Before Brands, Pfizer, Kaléo Inc., and DBV Technologies. The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest. This study was supported by grant R21AI135702-PI from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R. S. Gupta).

Keywords

  • Atopy
  • Egg allergy
  • Food allergy
  • Pediatrics
  • Prevalence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Egg Allergy in US Children'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this