Self-Reported Food Hypersensitivity: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Comorbidities in the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aims to investigate the prevalence of self-reported food hypersensitivity, (SFH), the characteristics of women with SFH, and whether SFH is associated with multiple health complaints among the participants of the Norwegian Women and Cancer study (NOWAC).MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study among 64,316 women aged 41–76 years. The women were randomly selected from the Norwegian Central Person Register. Information on SFH and all covariates except age and place of residence was collected by questionnaires in 2002–2005.ResultsThe prevalence of SFH in our study sample was 6.8% (95% confidence interval: 6.7–7.0). Logistic regression analysis showed a negative association between SFH and age (odds ratio [OR] 0.97). The odds of SFH increased among women living in or near urban centers, women with more than 9 years of education, women who did not have full-time work, women who had experienced poor economic conditions in childhood, those living without a partner, and those who did not consume alcohol or smoke (OR varied from 1.10 to 1.70). Women with a low body mass index had higher odds of SFH (OR 1.37) than those with a moderate body mass index. SFH was positively associated with poor self-perceived health (OR 2.56). The odds of SFH increased with the number of concurrent health complaints, with an OR for 5–6 comorbidities of 4.93.ConclusionWe found an association between SFH, poor health, and different socio demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Women with SFH had increased odds of reporting multiple health complaints.

Quality of life and health of breast cancer woman survivors in Popayan-Colombia.

“…Another important parameter which relates to breast cancer, is the marital statues and the support the woman has when facing this disease. It must be noticed that according to the study, 41% of the women were married, while 38.5% were divorced, a similar report found by Pineda et al (32), who established that the support women with breast cancer require is mainly derived from a family member, which allows to encourage healthy and mentally stable environments toward the symptoms manifested such as depression and anxiety (33).It was also found that divorced women tend to generate, due to their condition, factors such as mentioned in other researches (34), that are associated to health detriment and a low level in the immunologic system, caused by a lack of emotional support, resulting in the development of the disease (35). Considering the abovementioned, it is important to create healthy environment and support that the patient must receive when facing this pathology, which is typically associated to death (36).…”

The self-management work of food hypersensitivity

“…Thus, FH shares aspects of other long-term conditions in the sense that it may entail a large self-management workload and burden of treatment. Many people have concurrent long-term conditions, and this applies to a subgroup of women with FH as well [ 3 , 37 – 39 ]. According to May et al [ 28 ] and Dobler et al [ 25 ], the workload of managing one condition is part of the total burden of treatment, and the workload of managing one condition may reduce a person’s capacity to do other tasks, including managing comorbidities.…”

“…Existing studies on FH have focused on several topics. Some have investigated epidemiological aspects of FH, such as the prevalence of FH [ 3 , 4 ], while others have explored dietary and diagnostic aspects of FH [ 5 , 6 ]. Some qualitative studies have explored the experiences of people who live with FH, including the experiences of eating out [ 7 , 8 ], and some have explored the quality of life of people with different FH conditions [ 9 – 17 ].…”