Behavior and Parenting Stress Characteristics in Young Children With Severe Food Allergies According to the Severity Score System

PURPOSE: Limited knowledge exists regarding the psychosocial characteristics of young Asian children affected by food allergies (FAs) and their caregivers.

This study aims to assess the usefulness of the Food Allergy Severity Score (FASS) system in evaluating the risk of emotional impacts on young children and caregivers who are dealing with severe FA.

METHODS: Children between 2 and 10 years of age who were diagnosed with FA and following an elimination diet were enrolled in the study.

The FASS, Korean Parenting Stress Index, and Korean Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 were used for evaluating the above mentioned risk.

RESULTS: Among the 75 participants, 64.0% had a history of anaphylaxis, and 56.0% reported multiple FAs.

A total of 160 cases of FASS was documented across 21 types of food and classified as mild (n = 5, 1.07), moderate (n = 100, 2.01–4.01), or severe (n = 55, 4.24–6.84).

The concordance of calculated- and stakeholder interpreted-FASS was moderate (kappa 0.587).

Children with severe FASS (sFASS) showed increased risk for functional communication (relative risk [RR], 1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.99–2.48) and increased parental reinforcement (RR, 1.40; 95% CI, 0.91–2.14).

Their caregivers exhibited reduced levels of demandingness (RR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.37–0.94) and role restriction (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.39–0.98).

Receiver operating characteristic curves suggested that functional communication (numeric FASS cutoff, 3.47; area under the curve [AUC], 0.695), withdrawal (cutoff, 3.40; AUC, 0.657), developmental social disorders (cutoff, 3.96; AUC, 0.648), and reinforces parent (cutoff, 3.15; AUC, 0.646) were possibly be affected.

CONCLUSIONS: The FASS provides an objective tool to assess pediatric FA severity.

Early psychosocial intervention for young children with severe FASS and their caregivers may improve prognosis by identifying possible adaptive skill deficiencies and excessive parenting stresses.