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A Treatment Package without Escape Extinction to Address Food Selectivity
Published on: August 21, 2015
Evaluation of a group intervention for children with food allergy and their parents
Jennifer S LeBovidge1, Karol Timmons, Christine Rich
1Division of Immunology, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. jennifer.lebovidge@childrens.harvard.edu
Background:
Children with food allergy and their parents may experience substantial stress related to the risk of serious reactions and the demands of allergy management.
Objective:
To evaluate a group intervention for children with food allergy and their parents designed to increase parent-perceived competence in coping with food allergy and to decrease the parent-perceived burden associated with food allergy.
Methods:
Sixty-one children aged 5 to 7 years with food allergy and their parents attended 1 of 4 half-day workshops, with parent and child groups run concurrently. Parents completed self-report measures of perceived competence in coping with food allergy at 3 time points: preworkshop (within 8 weeks of the intervention), postworkshop (immediately after the intervention), and follow-up (4-8 weeks after the intervention). Parents completed a measure of burden associated with food allergy at preworkshop and follow-up. Parents and children also completed evaluations of the study intervention.
Results:
Parent-perceived competence in coping with food allergy increased significantly from preworkshop to postworkshop and follow-up, and parent-perceived burden associated with food allergy decreased from preworkshop to follow-up. Parent and child evaluations of the workshop were favorable.
Conclusions:
These findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness and feasibility of a group intervention for children with food allergy and their parents and suggest the importance of controlled evaluations of group interventions in this population in the future.
