Survey shows food allergy prevalence in US children rose from 4.0% to 6.5% over 11 years

An observational survey report examined trends in food or digestive allergy prevalence among children aged 0-17 years in the United States. The study measured the percentage of children with a food or digestive allergy in the past 12 months, comparing data from 2007 and 2018. No specific intervention, comparator, or sample size was reported.

The main finding was an increase in reported prevalence from 4.0% in 2007 to 6.5% in 2018. No effect size, absolute numbers, or statistical measures (such as p-values or confidence intervals) were provided for this change. The direction of the association was reported as an increase.

Safety and tolerability data were not reported. Key limitations include the observational and self-reported nature of the survey data, which cannot establish causality. The funding source and potential conflicts of interest were not disclosed. For practice, this report describes a temporal association in population-level survey data. The increase in reported prevalence may warrant attention but does not inform specific clinical management decisions.