D2.204 - Research priorities for food allergy in children: A James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership

Food allergies affect one in five children in the UK. The aim of this project is to determine the top 10 research priorities for food allergy in children according to patients, parents and healthcare professionals. 

A James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership was established with a steering group comprising representatives from allergy and eczema charities, clinicians and people with lived experience of food allergy. Children and young people with food allergy, their parents, adults with a food allergy diagnosed in childhood and health care professionals with experience of caring for patients with food allergy take part in in each stage of the process. Survey 1: questions which could be answered through further research are submitted in an open survey, these are then categorised, summary questions are produced and out of scope questions or those already answered in the research literature are removed. Survey 2: Respondents rank the remaining research questions in order of priority. Final workshop: A nominal group technique is used to agree the final ‘top 10’ research priorities for food allergy research in children. 

Survey 1 has been completed. 915 respondents submitted 2343 questions. Respondents included 32 children with food allergy, 534 parents of children with food allergy, 84 children inputting into the parental survey, 180 health care professionals, 74 adults with a food allergy diagnosed in childhood and 11 indicated that they were ‘someone else’. The majority of the respondents were female (720) with fewer males (98). Additionally, the majority were White (715), then Asian/Asian British (58), Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups (20) and Black/ African/ Carribean/ Black British (11).  

Analysis of the submitted questions is on-going with the second survey due to go live in May 2025.  We plan to present the summary research questions submitted to the first survey and update on progress in survey 2. 

The project will establish the top 10 priorities for food allergy research in children.