Improvement of teacher food allergy knowledge in socioeconomically diverse schools after educational intervention.

BACKGROUND

Increasingly, teachers are the first respondents to food allergic reactions in schools. Studies of food allergy in school settings have identified deficiencies in teacher recognition and treatment of reactions. We sought to determine the effect of a didactic session on teacher knowledge of the causative foods, symptoms, and treatment of reactions in diverse elementary schools.

METHODS

An educational intervention project using a pretest-posttest control group design was performed. Teacher knowledge about food allergy causes, symptoms, and treatment of food allergic reactions was assessed.

RESULTS

The average percentage of correctly answered questions by teachers at baseline for each school ranged from 60% to 68%. After education, teachers at the intervention schools answered 24.6% to 34.6% (confidence interval = 21.5-74.1 and 32.1-103.9, respectively) more questions correctly compared with 4.0% to 4.3% (confidence interval = 2.5-21.6 and 0.9-31.0, respectively) in control schools.

CONCLUSIONS

Education significantly increased teacher knowledge of food allergy causes, symptoms, and treatment of food allergic reactions in diverse schools.