Prevalence of self-reported food allergy in Tunisia: General trends and probabilistic modeling

BACKGROUND: Food allergy (FA) has become a major public health concern affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. In Tunisia, published data on FA are scarce. METHODS: This study, was intended to fill the gap and estimate the frequency of allergy to different foods in the Sfax region, Tunisia, within self-reported FA. One hundred twenty-five (125) children (56% males, 1–17 years old), and 306 adults (17% males, 18–70 years old) were interviewed using a bilingual questionnaire. RESULTS: The number of self-reported food allergens in this sample was 105; allergens were clustered in 8 foods: fruits, seafood, eggs, milk and dairy, cereals, nuts, vegetables, and peanuts. Cutaneous reactions were the most frequent symptoms, in both children and adults. About 40% of children and 30% of adults had a family history of FA. About 81% of adults and 38% of children are allergic to at least 1 non-food allergen. The most prevalent food allergen was the fruit group in both adults and children, followed by seafood. Most food allergies were mutually exclusive and 90% of individuals have a single FA. The relationship between self-declared FA was modeled using a Bayesian network graphical model in order to estimate conditional probabilities of each FA when other FA is present. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the prevalence of self-reported FA in Tunisia depends on dietary habits and food availability since the most frequent allergens are from foods that are highly consumed by the Tunisian population.