Prevalence of Food Allergies in the Population of Preschool Children from the City of Osijek

Introduction: Food allergy is an immune-mediated hypersensitivity to allergens in food. This allergy affects about 6-8% of children younger than three years, about 4% of school-age children and about 2% of the adult population in the world. Aim: To investigate the prevalence of food allergies in the population of preschool children from the city of Osijek and to identify the most common causes of these allergies in the study population. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during April and May 2007, among preschool children (mean age 5.9±0.7 years, 401/810, 49.5% of boys and 409/810, 50.5% of girls) attending kindergartens in Osijek. The 810 parents of mentioned children filled out the specially designed questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions on age, sex and body weight of the child, the existence of a diagnosis of food allergy and type of food allergy. Results: In the studied population of preschool children there were 5.4% (44/810) of children diagnosed with food allergies. The most common causes of food allergies in the study population were different food additives (40.9%), eggs (18.2%), peanut (13.7%), milk (9.2%) and honey, pesticides, fish and gluten with the same frequency of 4.5% each. Conclusion: Food allergies often occur among preschool children from the city of Osijek with the particularly significant prevalence of allergic reactions to various food additives. In children with confirmed allergy to food ingredients, it is necessary to exclude such ingredient from the diet. In this sense, it is essential that manufacturers mark in detail the content of each foodstuff so that consumers can avoid eating those foodstuffs to which they are allergic.