Quality of life in food allergy.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The purpose of this review is to provide a review of studies examining health-related quality of life (HRQL) in food-allergic individuals, with an emphasis on publications since 2007.

RECENT FINDINGS

Over the past few years, an increasing number of studies have addressed the impact that food allergy has on HRQL. Many studies have used generic quality-of-life instruments to compare HRQL between food-allergic patients and healthy controls or between food-allergic patients and persons with other disease states. A significant achievement for this area of investigation is the existence of validated, disease-specific quality-of-life instruments for all age groups. These have been validated in multiple countries and translated into multiple languages.

SUMMARY

Food allergy clearly affects a patient's HRQL. With validated, disease-specific instruments to measure HRQL, researchers will be able to use HRQL as an end-point in therapeutic clinical trials, and clinicians will have a further aid in caring for patients suffering from food allergies.