Putera AM, Irwanto I. Effect of oral food challenge on quality of life and family activities in children with IgE-mediated food allergies. World J Clin Pediatr 2025; 14(3): 106763 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i3.106763]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Azwin Mengindra Putera, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Mayjend Prof. Dr. Moestopo No. 47, Pacar Kembang, Tambaksari, Surabaya 60132, Jawa Timur, Indonesia. azwin-m-p@fk.unair.ac.id
Research Domain of This Article
Allergy
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Pediatr. Sep 9, 2025; 14(3): 106763 Published online Sep 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i3.106763
Effect of oral food challenge on quality of life and family activities in children with IgE-mediated food allergies
Azwin Mengindra Putera, Irwanto Irwanto
Azwin Mengindra Putera, Irwanto Irwanto, Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya 60132, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Azwin Mengindra Putera, Division of Allergy Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Child Health, Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya 60286, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Irwanto Irwanto, Division of Growth and Development, Department of Child Health, Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya 60286, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Author contributions: Putera AM, Irwanto contributed to conceptualization and design; Putera AM contributed to material preparation, data acquisition, and analysis; all author authors contributed to writing-draft manuscript and writing-revision and approved to submit the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was protocol approved by the ethical committee team at Dr. Soetomo General Academic Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia (No. 0581/LOE/301.4.2/IX/2021).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors read the STROBE Statement checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to it.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Azwin Mengindra Putera, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Mayjend Prof. Dr. Moestopo No. 47, Pacar Kembang, Tambaksari, Surabaya 60132, Jawa Timur, Indonesia. azwin-m-p@fk.unair.ac.id
Received: March 7, 2025 Revised: April 14, 2025 Accepted: May 21, 2025 Published online: September 9, 2025 Processing time: 102 Days and 4.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Oral food challenge (OFC) is an integral part of confirming and evaluating the diagnosis of food allergy (FA), and most incidents of FA occur in children. FA significantly impairs the quality of life (QoL) and causes limited activities outside the home for children and their parents.
AIM
To evaluate the effect of OFC on QoL and family activities in children with FA.
METHODS
This prospective study identified children suspected of FA using a skin prick test (SPT) between January 2022 and December 2024. These children conduct an elimination diet for 4 wk, followed by OFC under protocol. Rating scales evaluated QoL using pediatric QoL inventory and family activities using family activities impact scale (FAIS), in which data are collected before and after an elimination diet and OFC. Statistical analysis utilized χ2, Spearman , paired t, Wilcoxon, independent t, and Mann–Whitney tests, with P < 0.05 considered significant.
RESULTS
Most participants were boys (137; 65.55%); 102 (64.56%) had a positive OFC and 35 (68.63%) a negative OFC. The average QoL before OFC was 69.13 ± 5.78, and 92.40 ± 4.22 after OFC (Z = 12.537; P < 0.001). In the FAIS score, the average result before OFC was 5.36 ± 0.68 and 4.10 ± 0.38 after OFC, which was a significant difference (Z = 12.162; P < 0.001). Although the difference in QoL before and after increased, and FAIS reduced, there was no significant difference. Additionally, most results of positive SPT are higher than positive OFC in each specific food allergen.
CONCLUSION
OFC may improve QoL and FAIS in children with FA and their families as it increases activities outside the home and reduces worry about allergen exposure.
Core Tip: Oral food challenge (OFC) is the gold standard for diagnosing food allergy (FA), and diagnosis of FA can affect quality of life (QoL) and family activities. Therefore, OFC can contribute to QoL, including definitive diagnosis, identifying disease severity, reducing anxiety, expanding the diet, increasing activities outside the home, and creating an adaptive environment in which the contributions are also associated with family activities. The crucial suggestion from the study are to create a safe environment for children with FA, in which the teacher and caretaker must improve their knowledge of FA, including its clinical manifestation, anaphylaxis, and administration of adrenaline auto-injection when needed immediately.
