Prenatal and perinatal risk factors of food allergy in Taiwanese young children.

Background. In recent decades, the prevalence of food allergy (FA) in children has increased in Western countries; however, there have been only limited studies on FA, especially among young children, in Asian countries, including Taiwan. In this study, we identified prenatal and perinatal risk factors associated with FA in young children in Taiwan. Methods. For this prospective birth cohort study, we adopted the Southern Taiwan Allergy Research Alliance (STARA)-FA questionnaire to collect data related to prenatal and perinatal risk factors and self-reported allergic symptoms in children aged 1-3 years in the well-baby clinics of 4 medical centers located in 3 cities, Chia-Yi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The STARA-FA questionnaire consisted of 99 questions to investigate the association of prenatal and perinatal risk factors with FA. Results. We recruited 903 young children aged 1-3 years in Taiwan. Among those, 95 (14.7%) children had allergic reactions to foods. The most common food...