Golding Michael A, Simons Elinor, Abrams Elissa M, Gerdts Jennifer, Protudjer Jennifer L P
The Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, 501G-715 McDermot Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3M 3P4, Canada.
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2021 Mar 10;17(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s13223-021-00530-9.
The impact of childhood food allergy on household costs has not been examined in Canada. The current study sought to examine differences in direct, indirect, and intangible costs among Canadian families with and without a food-allergic child.
Families with a child with a specialist-diagnosed food allergy (cases) were recruited from two tertiary pediatric allergy clinics in the Province of Manitoba, Canada, and matched, based on age and sex, to families without a food-allergic child (controls). Cost data for the two groups were collected via an adapted version of the Food Allergy Economic Questionnaire (FA-EcoQ). Consideration was given to income, defined as above vs. below the provincial annual median income.
Results from 35 matched case/control pairs revealed that while total household costs did not significantly differ between cases and controls, food-allergic families did incur higher direct costs ($12,455.69 vs. $10,078.93, p = 0.02), which were largely attributed to spending on food. In contrast, cases reported lower, but not statistically significant, total indirect costs compared to controls ($10,038.76 vs. $12,294.12, p = 0.06). Families also perceived their food-allergic child as having poorer quality of life relative to their healthy peers. Lastly, stratification of the analyses by annual income revealed several differences between the higher and lower income groups.
Relative to families without a food-allergic child, food-allergic families incurred higher direct costs across a number of different areas.
加拿大尚未研究儿童食物过敏对家庭成本的影响。本研究旨在调查有食物过敏儿童和无食物过敏儿童的加拿大家庭在直接成本、间接成本和无形 成本方面的差异。
从加拿大曼尼托巴省的两家三级儿科过敏诊所招募有专科诊断食物过敏儿童的家庭（病例组），并根据年龄和性别将其与无食物过敏儿童的家庭（对照组）进行匹配。通过改编版的食物过敏经济问卷（FA-EcoQ）收集两组的成本数据。考虑了收入因素，分为高于或低于省级年度中位数收入。
35对匹配的病例/对照对的结果显示，虽然病例组和对照组的家庭总成本没有显著差异，但食物过敏家庭的直接成本更高（12455.69加元对10078.93加元，p = 0.02），这主要归因于食品支出。相比之下，病例组报告的总间接成本低于对照组，但无统计学意义（10038.76加元对12294.12加元，p = 0.06）。家庭还认为他们食物过敏的孩子相对于健康同龄人生活质量较差。最后，按年收入分层分析显示高收入和低收入组之间存在一些差异。
相对于无食物过敏儿童的家庭，食物过敏家庭在多个不同领域产生了更高的直接成本。
