National Survey of United Kingdom Paediatric Allergy Services

Abstract

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Global trends in eczema prevalence during early life

“…Atopic diseases such as eczema, asthma, hayfever and food allergy do appear to be more common in certain regions, especially high‐income, urbanized settings. There is significant variation in prevalence worldwide, and while awareness of allergic diseases, allergy service provision, testing, pharmaceutical and device treatments are all increasing, hard evidence for ongoing increases in disease burden is difficult to generate 1,2 . This is partly because studies have often used different methodologies of disease diagnosis (e.g.…”

“…There is significant variation in prevalence worldwide, and while awareness of allergic diseases, allergy service provision, testing, pharmaceutical and device treatments are all increasing, hard evidence for ongoing increases in disease burden is difficult to generate. 1,2 This is partly because studies have often used different methodologies of disease diagnosis (e.g. questionnaire-derived data vs. physical examination), hampering direct comparisons.…”

Are paediatric allergy services promoting or harming public health?

“…6 Also in this issue, Wells et al describe a welcome increase in availability of allergy clinics and appointments for children and adolescents in the UK. 7 The 4-fold increase in clinic numbers and 7-fold increase in new appointments over 15 years may have partly been driven by increasing concern in the community about food allergy.…”

UK paediatric allergy services: A glass half full?

“…In this issue of Clinical and Experimental Allergy, Wells et al report results from a comprehensive assessment of paediatric allergy services in the UK, undertaken between February 2019 and May 2020 1 . The authors took advantage of freedom‐of‐information provisions in UK legislation to undertake a detailed survey of allergy service provision across all 450 hospitals in the UK.…”

“…Population density in the United Kingdom (2011 census data, LEFT panel) compared to the distribution of paediatric allergy services in the UK (RIGHT panel) as evaluated by Wells et al 1 Left panel reproduced from Vieno et al, doi:10.5194/acpd‐15‐20,881‐2015 under CC‐BY Attribution 3.0 Licence.…”