Quality of life in children and teenagers with food hypersensitivity

Abstract

Given that food is essential for life and that there is currently no cure for food hypersensitivity (FHS), quality of life is a key outcome measure for those affected. The quality of life of children and teenagers with FHS is particularly important given that they must learn to manage their FHS while also contending with normal developmental challenges. This article will review the current state of quality of life research in this important area, and discusses the impact of FHS on the quality-of-life of children and teenagers, the availability and suitability of disease-specific health-related quality-of-life measures for this population, and the identification of factors that may influence their health-related quality of life. Two previous reviews have been conducted in this area, and this article aims to extend this work by including recent publications and qualitative studies on this topic.

Keywords::

• children
• disease-specific measures
• food hypersensitivity
• quality of life
• teenagers

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.