Abstract
Objective:
Studies have been conducted about the allergens that led to hospitalization, but field surveys have not been conducted thoroughly focusing on the patients' behaviour. Therefore, in order to illustrate the buyers' behaviour in food allergies patients' families.
Method:
With the collaboration of nationwide patients associations for food allergies, a questionnaire survey, involving 1, 510 member families for the prevention of food allergies was carried out by mail. The survey inquired about the type of offending foods that are responsible for food allergies, the place of onset, the treatment methodologies and the degree of understanding of allergy indicators, etc. The questionnaire gathered the responses of 878 families, 1383 patients (including 402 patients with a history of anaphylactic shock).
Results summary:
The food suppliers of the families of patients affected by food allergies were mostly co-ops, supermarkets and natural-food stores. When buying food, about 99% of families checked the labelling, and “may contain” list of allergens in the product. If these families found an allergen in the ingredients, they rejected the product. Those families choose food based on this information, but they thought that the chances of access to information about food allergies were very few. Therefore, in the future, it will be necessary to provide information regarding food allergies at the locations where sales of these alimentary products are carried out, on the inter-net.
