Number of food allergies and diet quality

More than 30% of children in the US with food allergy have multiple food allergies. Food restrictions due to food allergies can affect children's diet and growth. We hypothesized that a higher number of food allergies would be associated with poorer diet quality.

Our aim was to assess the relationship between number of food allergies and diet quality.

A total of 195 participants aged 2 to 19 years were recruited from pediatric clinics within the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, NY. Participants completed food frequency questionnaires. Diet quality was scored using the Diet Quality Index-International. Multivariable regression models were built to assess for associations between number of food allergies and Diet Quality Index scores for overall diet quality, variety, adequacy, moderation, and balance while controlling for age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status.

The mean age of the cohort was 7.4 years (SD = 4.8); 49.7% of the 195 participants were female, and 117 (60%) had food allergy. Participants had between zero and nine food allergies (mean = 1.7 [SD = 1.9]). Covariate-adjusted models showed that number of food allergies was negatively associated with dietary variety (β = -0.51 [P = .036]) and positively associated with dietary moderation (β = 0.22 [P = .002]). There were no associations between number of food allergies and overall diet quality, adequacy, or balance.

Number of food allergies positively correlated with dietary moderation and negatively correlated with dietary variety. Although children with food allergies had an overall diet quality comparable to that of their peers without allergy, they would still benefit from awareness to increase dietary variety.