Factors Affecting Food Allergy-Related Quality of Life From Parents' Perception in Turkish Children

PURPOSE: Food allergy (FA) affects the daily lives of children and parents in varying degrees. The Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire-Parent Form (FAQLQ-PF) is a valid and reliable instrument to assess the quality of life (QoL) of children from parents' perception. The aim of this study was to validate and determine the reliability of the Turkish FAQLQ-PF and to assess QoL in food-allergic children. METHODS: Children aged between 0 and 12 years and diagnosed with immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated FA for at least 1 month were enrolled. The English FAQLQ-PF was translated into Turkish according to the World Health Organization guidelines. The Food Allergy Independent Measure and the Turkish Child Health Questionnaire-Parent Form 50 were used for construct validity. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-seven patients participated. The median age of patients and FA duration were 2.4 years (1.2–5.2 years, interquartile-ranges) and 2 years (0.8–5.1), respectively. Ninety-six (61.1%) patients had anaphylaxis. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was good for all age groups of children (<4, 4–6, and 7–12 years). Patients with either asthma or anaphylaxis had worse scores than others. Total scores of FAQLQ-PF tended to increase with age. Patients aged 7–12 had the highest total scores among all patients (2.2±0.1, 3.0±0.2, and 3.3±0.3 for <4, 4–6, and 7–12 years, respectively, P<0.001, P for trend <0.001). Other factors causing the poor QoL were cow's milk allergy, sibling allergy, mother's age over 30 years, mother's high education level and lower number of persons in household. CONCLUSIONS: The Turkish FAQLQ-PF is a valid and reliable scale. FA-related QoL was significantly worse with age. Coexistent asthma, anaphylaxis regardless of its severity, cow's milk allergy, sibling allergy and the older and educated mothers seem to poorly affect QoL.