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Teacher food allergy knowledge increased after education
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Teacher education about food allergies greatly increased their knowledge of causes, symptoms and treatment of allergic reactions, according to recent study findings published in Clinical Pediatrics.
“The greatest impact of this educational intervention was the improvement of the teachers’ knowledge of the appropriate treatment of a systemic allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) as the immediate use of epinephrine, from ~50-70% to greater than 94% of teachers understanding this fact,” Sweta S. Shah, MD, of Texas Children’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote.
The educational intervention study included schools and its teachers who were either in the intervention group or control group. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess teacher knowledge of food allergies.
After intervention, researchers found that there was improvement in understanding of causal foods, signs of anaphylaxis, and proper treatment of local and systemic reactions compared with the control group. At baseline, correctly answered questions at each school ranged from 60% to 68%. After intervention, teachers at the intervention schools correctly answered 24.6% to 34.6% more questions compared with 4% to 4.3% in control schools.
“Focused didactic educational intervention for teachers at diverse schools with higher (>90%) and lower (<58%) student [National School Lunch Program] participation is effective in increasing knowledge and comfort level in the recognition and treatment of food allergy,” researchers wrote. “Given the importance of training for effective school food allergy management plans, didactic methods for training should be considered for school personnel.”
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.
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