Impact of an Educational Tool on Quality of Life and Anxiety in Parents of Children With Nut Allergy

Over 4% of children in Ireland have a food allergy. Many studies report that parents and children with food allergy have a decreased quality of life (QOL). However maternal anxiety and parental overprotection even in the absence of FA can lead to childhood anxiety. Children with FA are at risk of exclusion from social activities and overly restrictive lifestyles as parents attempt to minimise risk and their own anxiety by avoiding food related activities. The investigator's department carried out a prospective observation study collecting data on lifestyle practice of food allergic children between 2-16 years attending their services and the rate of accidental allergic reactions (AARs) over 1 year (Recording accidental allergic reactions in children with food allergy: REAACT). Most children in REACCT (which represents 25% of the return waiting list population) are attending social activities and visiting food venues. Caregivers can be influenced by high profile media cases which often report fatal AARs occurring in food establishments and during social activities such as parties. The psychological theories of availability heuristic (people make judgements on the likelihood of an event on how easily a case comes to mind) and base case neglect (erroneously judge the likelihood of a situation by failing to consider all relevant data, instead, focusing on new information) can help explain how heavy reporting of rare severe/fatal AAR cases in the media can increase anxiety among vulnerable parents and children leading to social exclusion and avoidance of visiting eateries. Conversely, there is no reporting of the thousands of food allergic children and families who successfully manage their food allergies and manage to navigate events such as eating out and social activities where food is an integral part. Hence, it is likely that families newly diagnosed with nut allergy are not aware of how other families with established nut allergy behave on a day to day basis. A primary goal of the allergy clinic is to promote safe, age appropriate, social interaction and eating out behaviors. Therefore, the investigators are interested in finding out whether awareness of the successful management by a greater number of families with nut allergy in Ireland, would impact on level of anxiety and health related quality of life of those newly diagnosed with nut allergy? The investigators hypothesize that providing newly diagnosed children and their parents with information on how other Irish children with established food allergies behave in situations involving food will have a positive impact on their quality of life and level of anxiety and promote "living with risk" rather than "living with fear". Specifically, they aim to assess the effectiveness of a psycho-educational intervention (illustrating the routine practices of food allergic children regarding social activities and eating out) on disease-specific quality of life and level of anxiety of newly diagnosed parents and children. A randomized control trial will be performed comparing quality of life, anxiety and self efficacy in parents who receive the intervention versus those that do not. These parents will have a young child with a newly diagnosed nut allergy.