WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Lifestyle and vulnerability associated with food allergy might predispose affected children to being bullied. Our previous parent survey identified high rates of bullying in this population, but child reports and emotional impact were not assessed.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:Bullying was common, often involving threats with food. Bullied food-allergic children, compared with nonbullied, report higher anxiety and lower quality of life. Parental awareness of bullying (∼50% of cases) was associated with better social and emotional functioning in the child. abstract OBJECTIVE: The social vulnerability that is associated with food allergy (FA) might predispose children with FA to bullying and harassment. This study sought to quantify the extent, methods, and correlates of bullying in a cohort of food-allergic children.METHODS: Patient and parent (83.6% mothers) pairs were consecutively recruited during allergy clinic visits to independently answer questionnaires. Bullying due to FA or for any cause, quality of life (QoL), and distress in both the child and parent were evaluated via questionnaires.
RESULTS:Of 251 families who completed the surveys, 45.4% of the children and 36.3% of their parents indicated that the child had been bullied or harassed for any reason, and 31.5% of the children and 24.7% of the parents reported bullying specifically due to FA, frequently including threats with foods, primarily by classmates. Bullying was significantly associated with decreased QoL and increased distress in parents and children, independent of the reported severity of the allergy. A greater frequency of bullying was related to poorer QoL. Parents knew about the child-reported bullying in only 52.1% of the cases. Parental knowledge of bullying was associated with better QoL and less distress in the bullied children.
CONCLUSIONS:Bullying is common in food-allergic children. It is associated with lower QoL and distress in children and their parents. Half of the bullying cases remain unknown to parents.
Nonadherence to immunosuppressants may play a role in late rejection in liver transplant recipients. In children, emerging data suggest that adherence can be measured by computing the standard deviation (SD) of consecutive blood levels of tacrolimus, resulting in a number that reflects the degree of variability between individual measures (the Medication Level Variability Index, MLVI). A higher MLVI value means erratic immunosuppression, likely due to less adherence. Data on this method in adults are limited. We obtained data from the medical charts of 150 randomly selected adult recipients. The MLVI was significantly higher in patients who had biopsy-confirmed rejection (mean MLVI=3.8, SD=3.2) as compared with the rest of the cohort (mean MLVI=2.3, SD=1.5; p<0.01), and it was significantly higher in patients who had a rejection as compared with patients who had a biopsy that was not read as a rejection (mean MLVI=2.6, SD=1.6; p<0.01). The MLVI was both associated with rejection and predicted its occurrence. A threshold MLVI of 2.0 resulted in 77% sensitivity and 60% specificity in predicting rejection; a threshold of 1.8 resulted in a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 48%. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) in a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.61–0.81). The MLVI is associated with and can predict rejection, possibly related to nonadherence, in adult liver transplant recipients.
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