ArticleBMC medicine2024
Identifying the most at-risk age-group and longitudinal trends of drug allergy labeling amongst 7.3 million individuals in Hong Kong.
Article in BMC medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of a drug allergy education course for non-specialists: Findings from ADAPT-A randomized crossover trial.Allergy · 2025Trial
- Evaluating the role of ChatGPT in patient questions regarding drug allergies.The World Allergy Organization journal · 2026Article
- The prevalence and risk factors of drug allergy in Sri Lanka-a multi-centre cross-sectional observational study (2024-2025).The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2026Article
- Real-World Performance of Non-Allergist-Led Penicillin Allergy Delabeling: Prospective Head-to-Head Comparison of APAAACI vs. PENFAST.Allergy, asthma & immunology research · 2026Article
- Bridging Global Disparities in Drug Allergy Through AI-Assisted Training for Non-Specialists: Findings From the Multinational ADAPT-2 Course.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2026Article
- Penicillin Allergy Labels, Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations: A Population-Based Cohort Study from China.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Global Burden of Drug-Induced Anaphylaxis Associated With 33 Classes of Antibiotics (1968-2024): A Pharmacovigilance Analysis.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2025Article
- Penicillin Allergy in China: Consequences of Inappropriate Skin Testing Practices and Policies.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2025Review
- Disparities in health-related quality of life between patients with primary and secondary antibody deficiencies.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2025Article
- Transparency, Reproducibility, and Accessibility of Clinical and Experimental Studies in Allergy (TRACES): Study design and protocol.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2025Article
- Global differences and risk factors influencing drug hypersensitivity quality of life: A multicenter, multiethnic study of drug allergy across 3 continents.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2025Article
- Article
- Bibliometric analysis of the trends and evolution in β-lactam allergy research.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2024Article
- Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: Analysis of the Russian Database of Spontaneous Reports.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Demographic characteristics associated with a penicillin allergy label during pregnancy.Frontiers in allergy · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIncorrect drug 'allergy' labels remain a global public health concern. Identifying regional trends of drug allergy labeling can guide appropriate public health interventions, but longitudinal or population drug allergy studies remain scarce. We analysed the serial epidemiology of drug allergy labeling to identify specific subgroups at highest risk of drug allergy labeling for potential interventions.
methodsLongitudinal, population-wide drug allergy labels and clinical data from over 7,337,778 individuals in Hong Kong between 2016 and 2021 were analysed.
resultsThe absolute prevalence and incidence of documented drug allergy were 5.61% and 277/100,000 population, respectively. Annual incidence of new allergy labels was stable between 2016 and 2019, until a significant drop in 2020 (-16.3%) during the COVID19 pandemic. The most common allergy labels were anti-infectives (245,832 [44.5%]), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (106,843 [19.3%]), and nervous system drugs (45,802 [8.3%]). The most common labeled culprits for the most severe immediate-type (anaphylaxis) and non-immediate-type (Stevens-Johnson syndrome) reactions were beta-lactams and nervous system drugs, respectively. For individuals at highest risk of labeling, there was significantly higher incidence of overall drug and beta-lactam allergy labeling amongst individuals aged > 40 years which contributed to the majority of newly labeled allergies (377,004, 68.2%).
conclusionsContrary to traditional dogma, we identified disproportionately higher incidence of drug allergy labeling amongst older individuals, rather than the paediatric age group. We advocate for more population-wide drug allergy studies to investigate this phenomenon in other cohorts as well as future preventative and delabeling efforts focusing on the adult population.
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