Quality of life in food allergy

Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to provide a review of studies examining health-related quality of life (HRQL) in food-allergic individuals, with an emphasis on publications since 2007. Recent findings: Over the past few years, an increasing number of studies have addressed the impact that food allergy has on HRQL. Many studies have used generic quality-of-life instruments to compare HRQL between food-allergic patients and healthy controls or between food-allergic patients and persons with other disease states. A significant achievement for this area of investigation is the existence of validated, disease-specific quality-of-life instruments for all age groups. These have been validated in multiple countries and translated into multiple languages. Summary: Food allergy clearly affects a patient's HRQL. With validated, disease-specific instruments to measure HRQL, researchers will be able to use HRQL as an end-point in therapeutic clinical trials, and clinicians will have a further aid in caring for patients suffering from food allergies.