A new study shows that modifications made to food allergy guidelines resulted in a nearly 20 percent reduction in peanut allergy among infants.
As published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the Melbourne-based study was comprised of a comparison of data from close to 2,000 infants who took part in the EarlyNuts study from 2018 to 2019 and more than 5,000 infants from the HealthNuts study, from 2007 to 2011.
The research unveiled a substantial decrease in peanut allergy prevalence from 2007 through 2019.
“The research found the peanut allergy prevalence in 2018-2019 was 2.6 per cent compared to 3.1 per cent in 2007-2011, which amounted to a 16 per cent decrease after accounting for migration and population changes,” the authors of the study wrote in a press release.
“In 2018-2019, infants who did not consume peanut until 12 months or later, 4.8 per cent were allergic. Severe reactions to introducing peanut early were uncommon, the data showed.”
“The safety of early peanut introduction at home is of significant interest to parents as well as health professionals around the world. More research must be done to look closer at these trends to help us understand how well early introduction to peanut works to prevent peanut allergies in real-life situations,” said Jennifer Koplin, a researcher at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
