Initial updosing phase of oral immunotherapy improves quality of life and psychological burden in parents of children with food allergy.

Background: Oral immunotherapy (OIT) can impose psychological burdens on patients and their parents due to the necessary preparations and repeated adverse reactions. Objective: To investigate changes in quality of life (QoL) and psychological burden in parents of children receiving OIT for food allergy (FA). Methods: Children aged 3-13 years with FA were enrolled. Parents were asked to fill out the Korean versions of the Food Allergy Quality of Life-Parental Burden (FAQL-PB), the Korean versions of the Food Allergy Quality of Life-Parental Form (K-FAQLQ-PF), the Korean versions of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (K-BAI), and the Korean version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression before OIT (T1), after 2 months of updosing (T2), and after the end of the updosing phase (T3). Results: A total of 111 parents were enrolled. The total FAQL-PB scores were decreased at T2 and T3 compared with those at T1 (all p < 0.001). Greater improvement in the total FAQL-PB score at T2 was noted in parents with a higher parental burden (FAQL-PB score ≥ 74 points) at baseline than in those with a lower parental burden (p = 0.001). Among the K-FAQLQ-PF domains, "food anxiety" scores were decreased at T2 and T3 compared with those at T1 (p = 0.049 and p = 0.030, respectively), whereas there was no change in "social and dietary limitation" and "emotional impact" scores between T1 and T2 and between T1 and T3. However, no differences were observed in K-BAI and PHQ-9 scores between T1 and T2 and between T1 and T3. Conclusion: Our results suggest that OIT improves parental burden and QoL in parents of children with FA.