Prevalence of self-reported food allergy in Tunisia: General trends and probabilistic modeling

Food allergy (FA) has become a major public health concern affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. In Tunisia, published data on FA are scarce.

This study, was intended to fill the gap and estimate the frequency of allergy to different foods in the Sfax region, Tunisia, within self-reported FA. One hundred twenty-five (125) children (56% males, 1-17 years old), and 306 adults (17% males, 18-70 years old) were interviewed using a bilingual questionnaire.

The number of self-reported food allergens in this sample was 105; allergens were clustered in 8 foods: fruits, seafood, eggs, milk and dairy, cereals, nuts, vegetables, and peanuts. Cutaneous reactions were the most frequent symptoms, in both children and adults. About 40% of children and 30% of adults had a family history of FA. About 81% of adults and 38% of children are allergic to at least 1 non-food allergen. The most prevalent food allergen was the fruit group in both adults and children, followed by seafood. Most food allergies were mutually exclusive and 90% of individuals have a single FA. The relationship between self-declared FA was modeled using a Bayesian network graphical model in order to estimate conditional probabilities of each FA when other FA is present.

Our findings suggest that the prevalence of self-reported FA in Tunisia depends on dietary habits and food availability since the most frequent allergens are from foods that are highly consumed by the Tunisian population.