Objectives: Children with asthma and allergies--particularly food and/or multiple allergies-are at risk for adverse asthma outcomes. This analysis describes allergy prevalence trends among US children by asthma status.
Methods: We analyzed 2001-2013 National Health Interview Survey data for children aged 0-17 years. We estimated trends for reported respiratory, food, and skin allergy and the percentage of children with one, two, or all three allergy types by asthma status. We estimated unadjusted trends, and among children with asthma, adjusted associations between demographic characteristics and allergy.
Results: Prevalence of any allergy increased by 0.3 percentage points annually among children without asthma but not among children with asthma. However, underlying patterns changed among children with asthma: food and skin allergy prevalence increased as did the percentage with all three allergy types. Among children with asthma, risk was higher among younger and non-Hispanic black children for reported skin allergy, among non-Hispanic white children for reported respiratory allergy, and among non-poor children for food and respiratory allergies. Prevalence of having one allergy type decreased by 0.50 percentage points annually, while the percent with all three types increased 0.2 percentage points annually. Non-poor and non-Hispanic white children with asthma were more likely to have multiple allergy types.
Conclusions: While overall allergy prevalence among children with asthma remained stable, patterns in reported allergy type and number suggested a greater proportion may be at risk of adverse asthma outcomes associated with allergy: food allergy increased as did the percentage with all three allergy types.
Keywords: Epidemiology; allergy prevalence; atopy; pediatrics.