RNS: Food allergy compliance, Aug. 6, 2008
TIME: 2:58
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=521
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Students with food allergies often not prepared for reaction in schools and on campus
Those with food allergies ‘are taking unnecessary risks,’ U-M researchers say
Suggested lead: University of Michigan researchers say students with food allergies all-too-often engage in risky behavior related to their allergies, including failing to avoid potentially dangerous food and informing others about their food allergies. Here’s Andi McDonnell with more.
College students with food allergies aren’t avoiding the foods they know they shouldn’t eat. Students of all ages are not treated with potentially life-saving epinephrine as often as they should be. And instructors, roommates and friends often are not aware of what to do if a food-allergic student has a reaction.
These are some of the findings of recent studies at the University of Michigan Health System.
Lead researcher Dr. Matt Greenhawt (M.D., MBA), who conducted the research while he was a fellow in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the U-M Health System and now is an associate at the Allergy & Asthma Center, LLC in the Atlanta metro area, explains…
“I think we’re seeing mixed evidence that these allergies are being taken seriously, certainly in the older population. Specifically in the study with college students, I think there’s clear evidence that there’s some ambivalence towards taking these allergies seriously and that indicates that there’s significant work that needs to be done in this population.”
Among college students, researchers found that only 50 percent of the students who identified themselves as having an allergy to a food said they always avoided the food.
About two-thirds could verify that somebody close to them on campus was aware that they were food-allergic. And even fewer said they had in their possession an emergency medication to treat a reaction. Greenhawt tells us…
“Among the college students it was somewhat surprising that only 43- percent who identified themselves as food allergic could verify that they had in their possession an emergency medication to treat a reaction. What was even more surprising was that only about 20-percent had self-injectable epinephrine available to treat a reaction, which is what most allergists will recommend as the most efficient way to treat a reaction that is potentially life saving in certain circumstances. When we looked even further, only 5-percent of the overall population actually carried this device with them at all times.”
The studies also find that grade-school students are often in school environments where there is no food allergy policy, and instructors are not trained how to treat an emergency food allergy reaction.
And with 43 percent of food-allergic children found to have had at least one reaction at school, there’s reason for some concern, says Dr. Marc McMorris (M.D.), medical director of Food Allergy Service at the U-M Health System…
“Food allergies can be very life threatening. They can range from a few hives to a mild skin reaction to a life threatening, severe reaction. The difficulty with that is you don’t when that might happen.”
Like on college campuses, the use of self-injectable epinephrine by younger children is sporadic. While nearly three-quarters of the food-allergic children had epinephrine available, less than one-third received the treatment.
According to Greenhawt…
“Overall, I think this study of school aged children indicates that we are doing a better job of taking the allergies seriously, however, there is lots of work to be done. I think one of the major issues to address would be that epinephrine needs to used in these reactions. I think underutilization of epinephrine is predisposing these children for possibly more severe reactions that result from either delay in treatment or absence of treatment.”
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News.
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