Food allergy in the Netherlands: differences in clinical severity, causative foods, sensitization and DBPCFC between community and outpatients

Table 1 Patient characteristics of the three different stages

	1st stage (possible FA to any food) ^\|\|	2nd stage (possible FA to priority food) ^‡			3rd stage: (probable FA to priority food) ^§
	Community (n = 967) %	Community (n = 154) %	Outpatients (n = 127) %	p-value	Community (n = 46) %	Outpatients (n = 102) %	p-value
Male gender	32.0	31.2	35.4	0.52	30.4	38.2	0.36
Age (mean ± SD)	34.7 (±9.3)	34.1 (±9.2)	32.2 (±12.3)	0.16	35.3	30.4	0.01*
Number of foods causing symptoms (median (range))		4 (1-17)	5 (1-18)	0.40	6 (1-14)	6 (1-18)	0.96
Symptom^¦:
-mild	10.1	14.0	26.0	0.01*	26.1	21.0	0.50
-moderate	58.4	46.7	19.7	<0.001*	28.3	19.0	0.21
-severe	21.4	39.3	54.3	0.008*	45.7	60.0	0.11
Atopy:
-pollen allergy		70.8	94.5	<0.001*	97.8	94.1	0.44
-dermatitis		36.4	33.3	0.61	25.6	37.8	0.18
Symptoms of plant food
-Hazelnut	2.4	31.2	32.3	0.84	71.7	37.3	<0.001*
-Peanut	2.7	16.2	32.3	0.002*	18.6	34.3	0.04*
-Walnut	2.5	36.4	36.2	0.98	52.2	41.2	0.21
-Apple	9.4	33.1	53.5	0.001*	82.6	57.8	0.003*
-Peach	1.0	18.8	29.1	0.04*	50.0	34.3	0.07
-Kiwi	4.8	29.2	43.3	0.01*	34.8	40.2	0.53
-Melon	1.2	14.9	15.0	1.00	21.7	16.7	0.46
-Banana	1.4	11.0	17.3	0.17	17.4	18.6	0.86
-Tomato	2.8	13.0	17.3	0.31	13.0	18.6	0.40
-Carrot	1.8	8.4	11.8	0.42	19.6	14.7	0.46
Symptoms of animal food
-Cow’s milk	10.7	31.8	8.7	<0.001*	4.3	6.9	0.72
-Hen’s egg	2.4	7.8	8.7	0.79	2.2	8.8	0.17
-Fish	6.3	18.2	5.5	0.001*	6.5	5.9	1.00
-Shrimp	3.7	20.8	10.2	0.02*	8.7	10.8	0.78

FA = food allergy.
^¦mild = oral allergy symptoms, moderate = gastro-intestinal symptoms or symptoms of the skin and mucous membranes, severe = respiratory or cardiovascular symptoms.
^||reported adverse food reaction to any food.
^‡positive history for priority food.
^§positive history and serum IgE for priority food.
*p-value < 0.05.

ISSN: 2045-7022