Parent-reported prevalence of food allergies in children with autism spectrum disorder: National health interview survey, 2011-2015

Although it is known that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have food allergies, the limited data on its prevalence is addressed in this 2019 study. This present study used surveys to ask parents if their children had either food allergies or autism. The kids were from the U.S. and aged between 2 and 17 years. Among this nationally representative sample of 53,365 children, the prevalence of autism was 1.7% (905), while food allergies were reported in 5.6% of the subjects. Analysis of this data revealed that food allergies were almost 2.5 times more common in youths with ASD (prevalence of 13.1%) than in those without ASD (5.4%). To conclude, this article demonstrates that food allergies are found to frequently co-occur with autism spectrum disorder. [NPID: autism, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, food allergies, allergies, sensitivity, diet, U.S., US, Americans, children]

Year: 2019

Reference: Tan, Y., Thomas, S., & Lee, B. K. (2019). Parent-reported prevalence of food allergies in children with autism spectrum disorder: National health interview survey, 2011-2015. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 12(5), 802–805. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2106