Download or read book Examining Differences in Parent Knowledge about Pediatric Food Allergies written by Anna K. Luke and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pediatric food allergy (FA) is a serious health condition that has become increasingly prevalent, as have rates of FAs self-diagnosed by parents and not medical professionals. Parents often play a primary role in assessing and managing risk for their child's FAs. As such, it is increasingly important for parents to possess knowledge about the most recent guidelines for FA management. This study aimed to examine the frequency of medical vs. parent reported diagnoses source as well as investigate levels of FA knowledge among parents using a comprehensive measure. The Food Allergy Knowledge Test (FAKT) was administered to parents (N=518) of children aged 3-17 years with (n= 349) and without (n=169) FAs using internet sampling. These FA and Control groups were partitioned into four subgroups: FA group parents of children diagnosed by an allergist (n=77) or a pediatrician (n=209), and Control group parents who did (n=106) or did not (n=63) endorse knowing someone with a FA. Findings were analyzed to provide composite knowledge scores and examine the effects of participant groups and predictor variables on FAKT scores. There were significant group differences on the overall FAKT score as well as on four FAKT subscales: Avoiding Exposure, EpiPen Knowledge, Symptoms, and Anaphylaxis. Exploratory analyses found parent age, gender, time since diagnosis, emergency action plan possession, and parental anxiety to be significant predictors of total FAKT score among participants in the FA group. Knowledge of FA was poor across all groups. Education for both caregivers with and without food allergic children is important to ensure FA safety in multiple settings. Future directions and limitations are discussed.