BackgroundFood allergy (FA) can have serious psychosocial and economic repercussions on food-allergic children and their caregivers and be associated with negative effects on their quality of life. Food allergen immunotherapy (IT) is a promising experimental therapy but can be linked to anxiety. This study investigated the effects of IT on FA-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) over a 24 month-follow-up in caregivers of children with single and multiple food allergies. We hypothesized that characteristics such as age, asthma at baseline and respiratory allergic reactions during therapy were key characteristics that influenced HRQL scores.MethodsA validated Food Allergy Quality of Life – Parental Burden Questionnaire (FAQL-PB) was used to assess HRQL. It was randomly distributed to and filled out by caregivers of 57 food-allergic children enrolled in clinical trials of IT. The same parent answered the FABQL-PB questionnaire at baseline and for 6-month, 12- month, 18- month, and 24-month time points on IT.ResultsCaregiver HRQL improved significantly (change < - 0.5, p <0.0001) at each follow-up time point compared to baseline. The percentages of caregivers with improvement in HRQL progressively increased (92% at 24 month-follow-up time point compared to baseline). HRQL improved more in caregivers of participants older than 10 years or desensitized to more than 4 food allergens than those who were not (p <0.0001). Caregivers of participants with pre-existing asthma or dose-related respiratory allergic reactions had less improvement in HRQL than those who did not (p <0.01).ConclusionIT lead to improvement in caregiver HRQL. Certain characteristics were associated with greater improvements in caregiver HRQL.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1710-1492-10-57) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Environmental determinants including aerosolized pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and tobacco smoke have been associated with exacerbation and increased incidence of asthma. The influence of aerosolized pollutants on the development of immune dysfunction in asthmatics has been suggested to be mediated through epigenetic remodeling. Genome accessibility and transcription are regulated primarily through DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNA transcript silencing. Epigenetic remodeling has been shown in studies to be associated with Th2 polarization and associated cytokine and chemokine regulation in the development of asthma. This review will present evidence for the contribution of the aerosolized pollutants PAH and environmental tobacco smoke to epigenetic remodeling in asthma.

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