New research has shown that anxiety felt by children with food allergies is worse than those with diabetes. EMMA JOSEPH reports...

YOUNGSTERS living with a peanut allergy have a worse quality of life than those living with diabetes, according to new research.

The study, which involved 40 nine and ten-year-olds - half with a peanut allergy and half with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus - found children with the allergy also worried more about the potentially life-threatening implications of their condition.

Researchers discovered that young people with a peanut allergy felt restricted and unable, or "not allowed", to do things that other people could.

Two of the children even said they were scared of dying when they knew peanuts were nearby - for example, when visiting a supermarket.

Youngsters with diabetes made comments about "restricted" foods their siblings were allowed to eat but they were not, and the size of their own helpings, but none mentioned a fear of dying.

To take part in the study the children completed quality of life questionnaires and used cameras to record how their disease affected them.

Dr Natalie Averie, then a fourth-year medical student at the University of Southampton's School of Medicine and senior lecturer and assistant director of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Dr Jonathan Hourihane carried out the research.

Dr Hourihane said the study was an interesting first step to measure food allergic children's anxiety levels, rather than relying on parents' opinions.

He said: "We know parents worry a lot but no one has asked food allergic children before.

"Children with diabetes need daily injections of insulin but are able to alter their dietary intake and exercise levels to control their blood sugar levels.

"Peanut allergic people also carry injections, of adrenaline, but only need to use these in a crisis situation, when they react severely to peanut.

"Previous research to measure the impact peanut allergy has on children's quality of life involved parents completing questionnaires rather than children."

Dr Averie suggested that improved education for children with peanut allergy and better access to support services would help them develop a positive attitude and lower their, sometimes unjustified, levels of anxiety, enabling them to follow a less restricted lifestyle.