The prevalence, severity, and distribution of childhood food allergy in the United States
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to better estimate the prevalence and severity of childhood food allergy in the United States. METHODS: A randomized, cross-sectional survey was administered electronically to a representative sample of US households with children from June 2009 to February 2010. Eligible participants included adults (aged 18 years or older) able to complete the survey in Spanish or English who resided in a household with at least 1 child younger than 18 years. Data were adjusted using both base and poststratification weights to account for potential biases from sampling design and nonresponse. Data were analyzed as weighted proportions to estimate prevalence and severity of food allergy. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to identify characteristics significantly associated with outcomes. RESULTS: Data were collected for 40 104 children; incomplete responses for 1624 children were excluded, which yielded a final sample of 38 480. Food allergy prevalence was 8.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.6-8.3). Among children with food allergy, 38.7% had a history of severe reactions, and 30.4% had multiple food allergies. Prevalence according to allergen among food-allergic children was highest for peanut (25.2% [95% CI: 23.3-27.1]), followed by milk (21.1% [95% CI: 19.4-22.8]) and shellfish (17.2% [95% CI: 15.6-18.9]). Odds of food allergy were significantly associated with race, age, income, and geographic region. Disparities in food allergy diagnosis according to race and income were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that the prevalence and severity of childhood food allergy is greater than previously reported. Data suggest that disparities exist in the clinical diagnosis of disease.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Prevalence rates for other common food allergies are 2.0-3.0% for milk allergy, 2.0% for peanuts, 0.8-2.0% for eggs, and 1.0% for tree nuts.
“This compares with prevalence rates of 2.0–3.0% for milk allergy [173,175], 2.0% for peanuts [173], 0.8–2.0% for eggs [176,177], and 1.0% for tree nuts [173,178,179].”
From Plant Proteins: Assessing Their Nutritional Quality and Effects on Health and Physical Function (2020) · cites this paper as [173]
Soy allergy has a prevalence of 0.4% among American children and 0.32% in Canadian children.
“soy allergy has a prevalence of only 0.4% among American children [172,173] and 0.32% in Canadian children [174].”
From Plant Proteins: Assessing Their Nutritional Quality and Effects on Health and Physical Function (2020) · cites this paper as [173]
Cites
Burks, A. W., James, J. M., & Eigenmann, P. (1951) · Cited by 2,573 · see citing works
Boyce, J. A., Assa’ad, A., Burks, A. W., Jones, S. M., Sampson, H. A., Wood, R. A., Plaut, M., Cooper, S. F., Fenton, M. J., Arshad, S. H., et al. (2010) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.10.008 · Cited by 2,353 · see citing works
The prevalence of food allergy: A meta-analysis
Rona, R. J., Keil, T. O. P., Summers, C. W., Gíslason, D., Zuidmeer, L., Södergren, E., SIGURDARDOTTIR, S. T., Lindner, T., Goldhahn, K., Dahlström, J., et al. (2007) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2007.05.026 · Cited by 1,355 · see citing works
Sicherer, S. H., & Sampson, H. A. (2009) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2009.08.028 · Cited by 976 · see citing works
Heeringa, S. G., West, B. T., & Berglund, P. A. (2010) · Chapman & Hall/CRC eBooks · doi:10.1201/9781420080674 · Cited by 896 · see citing works
Bock, S. A. (1987) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.79.5.683 · Cited by 740 · see citing works
Sicherer, S. H. (2011) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.11.044 · Cited by 723 · see citing works
Food Allergy Among Children in the United States
Branum, A. M., & Lukacs, S. L. (2009) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.2009-1210 · Cited by 698 · see citing works
Liu, A. H., Jaramillo, R., Sicherer, S. H., Wood, R. A., Bock, S. A., Burks, A. W., Massing, M. W., Cohn, R. D., & Zeldin, D. C. (2010) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.07.026 · Cited by 522 · see citing works
Assessment of quality of life in children with peanut allergy
Avery, N. J., King, R. M., Knight, S., & Hourihane, J. O. (2003) · Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · doi:10.1034/j.1399-3038.2003.00072.x · Cited by 486 · see citing works
Diagnosing and Managing Common Food Allergies: A Systematic Review
Chafen, J. J. S., Newberry, S. J., Riedl, M. A., Bravata, D. M., Maglione, M., Suttorp, M. J., Sundaram, V., Paige, N. M., Towfigh, A., Hulley, B. J., et al. (2010) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2010.582 · Cited by 482 · see citing works
Primeau, Kagan, Joseph, Lim, Dufresne, Duffy, Prhcal, & Clarke (2000) · Clinical & Experimental Allergy · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2222.2000.00889.x · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Ben‐Shoshan, M., Harrington, D. W., Soller, L., Fragapane, J., Joseph, L., Pierre, Y. S., Godefroy, S. B., Elliot, S., & Clarke, A. E. (2010) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2010.03.015 · Cited by 241 · see citing works
Increasing anaphylaxis hospitalizations in the first 2 decades of life: New York State, 1990–2006
Lin, R. Y.-W., Anderson, A. S., Shah, S. N., et al. (2008) · Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology · doi:10.1016/s1081-1206(10)60315-8 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Hourihane, J. O., Aiken, R., Briggs, R., et al. (2007) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2006.12.670 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Variations in quality of life among caregivers of food allergic children
Springston, E. E., Smith, B., Shulruff, J., Pongracic, J. A., Holl, J. L., & Gupta, R. S. (2010) · Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.anai.2010.08.003 · Cited by 125 · see citing works
Self-citationGupta, R. S., Springston, E. E., Smith, B., et al. (2010) · Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · doi:10.1111/j.1399-3038.2010.01005.x · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Self-citationGupta, R. S., Kim, J. S., Barnathan, J. A., Amsden, L. B., Tummala, L. S., & Holl, J. L. (2008) · BMC Pediatrics · doi:10.1186/1471-2431-8-36 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Self-citationGupta, R. S., Kim, J. S., Springston, E. E., Pongracic, J. A., Wang, X., & Holl, J. L. (2009) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/1472-6963-9-142 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Self-citationFood-induced Anaphylaxis: Who, What, Why, and Where?
Shah, E., & Pongracic, J. A. (2008) · Pediatric Annals · doi:10.3928/00904481-20080801-06 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Food allergy: A practice parameter update—2014
Sampson, H. A., Aceves, S., Bock, S. A., James, J., Jones, S., Lang, D., Nadeau, K., Nowak-Wegrzyn, A., Oppenheimer, J., Perry, T. T., et al. (2014) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2014.05.013 · Cited by 845 · see citing works
Plant Proteins: Assessing Their Nutritional Quality and Effects on Health and Physical Function
Hertzler, S. R., Lieblein-Boff, J. C., Weiler, M., & Allgeier, C. (2020) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu12123704 · Cited by 594 · see citing works
Soy and Health Update: Evaluation of the Clinical and Epidemiologic Literature
Messina, M. (2016) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu8120754 · Cited by 537 · see citing works
Anaphylaxis—a practice parameter update 2015
Lieberman, P., Nicklas, R. A., Randolph, C., Oppenheimer, J., Bernstein, D., Bernstein, J., Ellis, A., Golden, D. B. K., Greenberger, P., Kemp, S., et al. (2015) · Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.anai.2015.07.019 · Cited by 474 · see citing works
Epidemiology of Cow's Milk allergy
Flom, J. D., & Sicherer, S. H. (2019) · Nutrients · doi:10.3390/nu11051051 · Cited by 341 · see citing works
Brough, H. A., Nadeau, K. C., Sindher, S. B., Alkotob, S. S., Chan, S., Bahnson, H. T., Leung, D. Y. M., & Lack, G. (2020) · Allergy · doi:10.1111/all.14304 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
Hill, D. A., Grundmeier, R. W., Ram, G., & Spergel, J. M. (2016) · BMC Pediatrics · doi:10.1186/s12887-016-0673-z · Cited by 243 · see citing works
Bégin, P., Dominguez, T., Wilson, S. P., Bacal, L., Mehrotra, A., Kausch, B., Trela, A., Tavassoli, M., Hoyte, E., O’Riordan, G., et al. (2014) · Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1186/1710-1492-10-7 · Cited by 239 · see citing works
Overall prevalence of self-reported food allergy in Canada
Soller, L., Ben-Shoshan, M., Harrington, D. W., Fragapane, J., Joseph, L., St. Pierre, Y., Godefroy, S. B., La Vieille, S., Elliott, S. J., & Clarke, A. E. (2012) · Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2012.06.029 · Cited by 220 · see citing works
Senda, T., Dogra, P., Granot, T., Furuhashi, K., Snyder, M. E., Carpenter, D. J., Szabo, P. A., Thapa, P., Miron, M., & Farber, D. L. (2019) · Mucosal Immunology · doi:10.1038/s41385-018-0110-8 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Potential etiologic factors of microbiome disruption in autism
Buie, T. (2015) · Clinical Therapeutics · doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2015.04.001 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Kedar, O., Golberg, A., Obolski, U., & Confino‐Cohen, R. (2024) · Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety · doi:10.1111/1541-4337.13300 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gupta, R. S., Springston, E. E., Warrier, M. R., Smith, B., Kumar, R., Pongracic, J., & Holl, J. L.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Institute for Healthcare Studies and
- Saint Louis University (US)
- Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital (US)
- Venue
- PEDIATRICS
- Publisher
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- Published
- 2011-07-01
- Volume
- 128
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e9-e17
- ISSN
- 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-4275
- OpenAlex
- W2153292496
- Cited by
- 1,417
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 76 · 2023: 97 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 116 · 2020: 130 · 2019: 124 · 2018: 127 · 2017: 119 · 2016: 118 · 2015: 96 · 2014: 91 · 2013: 68 · 2012: 49
- FWCI
- 52.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Food Allergy Initiative
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Immunology and Allergy › Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Drug-Induced Adverse Reactions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Eosinophilic Esophagitis
- Keywords
- pediatric food allergy, food allergy prevalence, food allergy severity, peanut allergy, cow's milk allergy, shellfish allergy, multiple food allergies, severe allergic reactions, racial disparities, socioeconomic disparities, regional variation, United States
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Child, Preschool, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Food Hypersensitivity, Humans, Infant, Male, Severity of Illness Index, United States, Prevalence
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
