Risk factors of gastrointestinal food allergy in young children

Purpose - to study risk factors of gastrointestinal food allergy (GIFA) in young children. Materials and methods. 68 young children with GIFA and 22 children of the same age with an unencumbered individual allergy history were examined. A study of children perinatal, family and individual allergy history was conducted, and a survey was conducted on the state of parents’ health. The vitamin D supply of children was determined by quantifying of serum 25-hydroxycalciferol (25(OH)D) concentration by using an immunochemical analyzer. Results. Anamnestic risk factors that showed a significant association with the development of GIFA in young children and reliably differed from the control group were: complicated obstetric history, medical treatment of mothers during pregnancy, early artificial feeding, burdensome family allergy history and gastrointestinal diseases presence in parents. Insufficient supply of vitamin D was in 79.4% of patients with GIFA compared with 13.6% of children in the control group. The average serum 25(OH)D value in children with GIFA was 34.18±1.7 ng/ml, which is significantly lower than in the control group (40.2±2.3 ng/ml; p<0,05), which may be an additional factor in the development and severity of the disease. Conclusions. Risk factors of gastrointestinal food allergy have been identified, which will improve the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal allergic disease. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local ethics committee of the participating institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the author. Key words: gastrointestinal food allergy, risk factor, vitamin D, young children.