Food allergies in children are increasing worldwide. For the first time, an Italian survey, conducted in the Campania region, photographs the trend of the phenomenon over the last ten years in our country. The results of the ‘Epifa’ (Epidemiology of Pediatric Italian Food Allergy) study, promoted by the Italian Society of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Pediatric Nutrition (Sigenp) and coordinated by Roberto Berni Canani, full professor of Pediatrics at the University of Naples Federico II , were published in the latest issue of an important scientific journal in the sector. “There is increasing evidence – underlines the Sigenp president, Claudio Romano – that a growing negative pressure from environmental factors linked to the excessive use of antibiotic drugs and ultra-processed foods may be responsible for the increase in the prevalence and severity of allergies food and many other chronic pathologies of the pediatric age”. “The publication of this Sigenp work – he continues – confirms the great scientific vivacity of our Society and researchers as well as the commitment to launching prevention campaigns aimed at educating children and families on healthy eating habits and lifestyles” .
The head of Sigenp’s food-induced diseases area, Renata Auricchio, underlines: “This study is important because it underlines the need to reduce the epidemiological and social burden of these conditions which then also extend to adulthood with a rise in social and healthcare The work of this Area of Sigenp has always provided important insights and results on clinical and basic research, as demonstrated by this work coordinated by Professor Berni Canani”. The data is worrying. “Our study, conducted from 2009 to 2021 in all the provinces of Campania – the words of Berni Canani – was carried out thanks to the collaboration of 10 family paediatricians in the area, 2 for each province. Monitoring for a decade, from 2009 to 2021, a progressive increase in the prevalence, i.e. +34.4%, of food allergies in pediatric age was observed in a sample of 105,151 children aged between 0 and 14 years”. “The increase – he specifies – was even greater in children under 3 years of age: +120.8%. The most frequent allergens were cow’s milk, eggs and nuts”.
Berni Canani continues: “One in 4 children, among those who have developed food allergy, has a history of anaphylactic shock, confirming an increasing trend not only in the prevalence but also in the severity of food allergies in childhood in our country, in line with previous data obtained by the same research group by querying the Ministry of Health database where a 400% increase in cases of emergency room visits in Italy for food-induced anaphylaxis in the last decade had been detected”. The results obtained with the research in Campania, according to the expert, reflect the reality of the other Italian regions. “Extending these results to the general Italian pediatric population for a total of 7,636,545 children and young people up to 14 years of age, we estimate that there are currently over 92,000 children in Italy affected by food allergy”. What is causing the dramatic increase in the prevalence of these conditions? “The causes – replies Berni Canani – can be multiple: from an excessive prescription of antibiotics and drugs that inhibit gastric acidity, to the use of disinfectants and antiseptics. But a role of great importance in encouraging the appearance of food allergies is given by continuous and unstoppable increase in the consumption of ultra-processed foods in children starting from the first year of life”. “These ultra-processed foods, the so-called ‘junk food’ which in Italy, as well as in other countries such as the United States or Australia, is consumed more and more by children, even the youngest – they conclude – are capable of altering the immune system and trigger the onset of allergies”.
