Quality of Life is Lower in Adults with Childhood-Persistent Food Allergy Compared to Adult-Onset Food Allergy

Abstract

RATIONALE: While parental anxiety is commonly observed clinically in the food-allergic (FA) population, studies of FA patients and their parents have mainly focused on using broader measures (e.g., quality of life (QoL)) to capture this phenomenon. Moreover, measures of QoL have often been equated to measures of health anxiety. The current study sought to use factor analyses to determine whether parental anxiety and quality of life are distinct constructs. METHODS: Canadian parents of children with FA were invited to participate in an online survey through Food Allergy Canada about their generalized (state) anxiety using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S) and their QoL using the Food Allergy Quality of Life Parental Burden (FAQoL-PB) questionnaire. Factor analyses were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of STAI-S and its relation to FAQoL-PB. RESULTS: Factor analysis was first conducted separately for each measure-STAI-S yielded two factors (presence versus absence of anxiety) and the FAQoL-PB also yielded two factors (physical limitations on life versus emotional distress). Subsequently, factor analysis of all items (20 items from STAI-S and 17 items from FAQoL-PB) combined resulted in four factors that were orthogonal. These findings suggest that, although significantly correlated (r 50.54, p<0.001), parental anxiety and QoL are two distinct constructs. CONCLUSIONS: While it is very useful to understand the quality of life and parental burden as it relates to parenting children with FA, our findings demonstrate the importance of developing a separate measure for understanding food allergy-associated parental anxiety.