Atopy and Food Allergies among Children Attending Outpatient Department of a Selected Tertiary Care Hospital in Dhaka City

Author(s): Biplob Biswas, Wahida Khanam, Delwar Hossain, Mohammad Ahad Adnan, Uttam Kumar Datta, A.K. Naseruzzaman, Zamil Ahmed Manik, Tauhidul Islam

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD), also called atopic eczema, is a common chronic or recurrent inflammatory skin disease and affects 15-20% of children.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the proportion of atopy and food allergies among children attending outpatient department of a selected tertiary care hospital in Dhaka city.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study. It was carried out on 384 children from June 2022 to December 2022 at pediatric outpatient department in Institute of child and mother health (ICMH), Dhaka, Bangladesh. The statistical evaluation of the results by using a window-based computer software program devised with Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS-24).

Result: Total 384 children were enrolled among them Mean age was (1.15±0.43) years, 52% were female and 92.18% had a family history of atopy. Regarding symptoms 4.3% had lip or tongue swelling, 8.5% had difficulty in swallowing, 39.30% had urticaria, 13.7% had dyspnea and 5.1% had anaphylaxis. 82.8% of the respondents had mild illness, 11.98% had moderate illness and 5.21% had severe illness. 48.6% had Cow's Milk allergy, 19.5% to beef, 3.3% to egg ,2.6%to hilsa fish and prawn respectively and 22.3% to others. Mean Eosinophil count was (11.62±2.14), IgE was (747.40±314.2) IU and the skin prick test was positive 90.0%.

Conclusion: The predominant sign of food allergy in young children was atopic dermatitis. Allergic conjunctivitis, oral allergy syndrome and respiratory distress appeared later in the progression of symptoms. Additionally, anaphylaxis is usually used to affect older children.