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Not all pediatric allergy clinic referrals lead to allergy diagnosis
ATLANTA — Just over half of the patients referred to a tertiary care pediatric allergy clinic received an allergy diagnosis, suggesting a lack of understanding in identifying the condition, according to findings presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting.
“The prevalence of allergic disease is increasing, and wait times for allergy consultation are concerning,” Victoria E. Cook, MD, division of allergy and immunology, University of British Columbia and British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, and colleagues wrote. “Greater efforts to educate parents and referring physicians about when to truly suspect allergy and the pitfalls of over-testing are warranted.”
Researchers randomly selected 500 of 1,075 new referrals in 2014 to a Canadian hospital for their analysis. Of the 401 referrals reviewed by the time of the abstract’s writing, 45% did not receive an allergy diagnosis. In addition, 59% had only one reason for referral, with food allergy the reason 48% of the time, followed by allergic rhinoconjunctivitis at 22%, urticaria at 14%, eczema at 13%, asthma at 11% and drug allergy, parent request and family history each at 7%.
Cook and colleagues also wrote that of the 55% of cases that were indeed allergies, with the most common final diagnoses being food allergies (53%), allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (40%), atopic dermatitis (14%) and asthma (11%). One-third of patients received multiple diagnoses.
According to researchers, their study is the first to compare reasons for referral with final diagnosis from a pediatric allergy clinic. Previous such studies had focused on adults, they wrote. – by Janel Miller
Reference:
Cook, VE, et al. Abstract 177. Presented at: American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting; March 3-6, 2017; Atlanta.
Disclosure: Cook reports no relevant disclosures. Healio Family Medicine was unable to confirm the other researchers’ disclosures prior to publication.