Evidence map›Paper›PMID 11919093›Full record

ArticleArchives of disease in childhood2002

How dangerous is food allergy in childhood? The incidence of severe and fatal allergic reactions across the UK and Ireland.

C F Macdougall, A J Cant, A F Colver

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Archives of disease in childhood, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
42citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
9.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 271 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Predictors of Fatal Anaphylaxis: A Systematic Review.International archives of allergy and immunology · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated food allergy.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2024
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Fatal food anaphylaxis in adults and children.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2024
    Review
  5. Review
  6. Emergency treatment of anaphylaxis: concise clinical guidance.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2022
    Article
  7. Food allergic reactions during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in Israeli children.Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · 2021
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. IgE-mediated food allergy.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2018
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. CSACI position statement: epinephrine auto-injectors and children < 15 kg.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2015
    Review
  18. Food allergy prevalence: new possibilities for therapy and prevention.Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2012
    Review
  19. Food-induced anaphylaxis.Immunology and allergy clinics of North America · 2012
    Article
  20. Food allergy.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2011
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

C F MacdougallNewcastle General Hospital, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE, UK.
A J Cant
A F Colver
North Tyneside General Hospital · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

aimsTo discover the incidence of fatal and severe allergic reactions to food in a large population of children.

methodsA retrospective search for fatalities in children 0-15 years from 1990 to February 1998, primarily of death certification at offices of national statistics. A prospective survey of fatal and severe reactions from March 1998 to February 2000, primarily through the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit.

main outcome measureswere deaths and severe reactions. A case was deemed severe if one or more of the following criteria was met: cardiorespiratory arrest; need for inotropic support; fluid bolus >20 ml/kg; more than one dose of epinephrine; more than one dose of nebulised bronchodilator. A case was deemed near fatal if intubation was necessary.

resultsThe UK under 16 population is 13 million. Over the past 10 years, eight children died (incidence of 0.006 deaths per 100 000 children 0-15 years per year). Milk caused four of the deaths. No child under 13 died from peanut allergy. Two children died despite receiving early epinephrine before admission to hospital; one child with a mild food allergic reaction died from epinephrine overdose. Over the past two years, there were six near fatal reactions (none caused by peanut) and 49 severe ones (10 caused by peanut), yielding incidences of 0.02 and 0.19 per 100 000 children 0-15 years per year respectively. Coexisting asthma is more strongly associated with a severe reaction than the severity of previous reactions.

conclusionsIf 5% of the child population have food allergy, the risk that a food allergic child will die from a food allergic reaction is about 1 in 800 000 per year. The food allergic child with asthma may be at higher risk. Prescribing an epinephrine autoinjector requires a careful balance of advantages and disadvantages.

Indexed as

AdolescentAllergensAsthmaBronchodilator AgentsChildChild, PreschoolEpinephrineFemaleFood HypersensitivityHumansIncidenceInfantInfant, NewbornIrelandMaleProspective StudiesAllergensBronchodilator AgentsEpinephrine

Identifiers

PMID11919093
PMCPMC1719140
OpenAlexW2115006520

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.