Association of food allergy with asthma severity and atopic diseases in Jewish and Arab adolescents

Aim: To investigate the prevalence of reported food allergy and its association with atopic diseases and asthma severity among Jewish and Arab adolescents. Subjects and methods: The self-report questionnaire of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) was administered to adolescents aged 13-14 years from randomly selected junior high schools in Israel. Questions regarding food allergy were added. Results: A total of 11 171 questionnaires were available for analysis. Food allergy was reported by 3.6% of participants: 1.9% milk, 0.6% egg, 0.6% peanut and 0.4% sesame. On multivariate analysis, food allergy was strongly associated with current asthma (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.8-3.3), atopic eczema (OR, 3.2; 95% CI, 2.4-4.3) and allergic rhinitis (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.8-3.1). Arabs were significantly more allergic to peanut (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.5-4.1), egg (OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 2.1-5.9) and sesame (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2-4.5) than Jews, and less allergic to milk (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.9). Asthmatic subjects with food allergy had significantly more parameters of severe asthma than those without food allergy (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of allergy to specific foods differs between Jews and Arabs. Asthmatic adolescents with food allergy report more severe asthma than those without food allergy.