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Background: Hen's egg is one of the commonest causes of food allergy, but there are little data on its risk factors. Objective: To assess the risk factors, particularly eczema, for hen's egg allergy in the EuroPrevall birth cohort. Methods: In the pan-European EuroPrevall birth cohort, questionnaires were undertaken at 12 and 24 months or when parents reported symptoms. Children with suspected egg allergy were invited for skin prick testing, specific IgE assessment, and double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) as indicated. Each egg allergy case (positive DBPCFC or egg-induced anaphylaxis) was allocated up to 2 age- and country-matched controls. Results: A total of 12,049 infants were recruited into the EuroPrevall birth cohort, and 9,336 (77.5%) were followed until 2 years. A total of 86 infants had egg allergy (84 by DBPCFC) and were matched with 140 controls. Independently associated with egg allergy were past/current eczema (adjusted odds ratio, 9.21; 95% CI, 2.65-32.04), Scoring Atopic Dermatitis (1.54 per 5 units; 1.28-1.86), antibiotics in the first week of life (6.17; 1.42-26.89), and current rhinitis (3.02; 1.04-8.78). Increasing eczema severity was associated with an increasing likelihood of egg allergy. Eczema was reported to have started 3.6 (SE, 0.5) months before egg allergy. Age of introduction of egg into the diet was not associated with egg allergy. Conclusions: Similar to peanut allergy, eczema was strongly associated with egg allergy development and the association increased with increasing eczema severity. The age of introduction of dietary egg was not a risk factor. The potential role of antibiotics in early life as a risk factor for egg allergy needs further examination. © 2019

Background: Blinded food challenges are considered the current gold standard for the diagnosis of food allergies. We used data from a pan-European multicenter project to assess differences between study centers, aiming to identify the impact of subjective aspects for the interpretation of oral food challenges. Methods: Nine study centers of the EuroPrevall birth cohort study about food allergy recruited 12 049 newborns and followed them for up to 30 months in regular intervals. Intensive training was conducted and every center visited to ensure similar handling of the protocols. Suspected food allergy was clinically evaluated by double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenges using a nine dose escalation protocol. The primary challenge outcomes based on physician's appraisal were compared to documented signs and symptoms. Results: Of 839 challenges conducted, study centers confirmed food allergy in 15.6% to 53.6% of locally conducted challenges. Centers reported 0 to 16 positive placebo challenges. Worsening of eczema was the most common sign when challenged with placebo. Agreement between documented objective signs and the challenge outcome assigned by the physician was heterogeneous, with Cohen's kappa spanning from 0.42 to 0.84. Conclusions: These differences suggest that the comparison of food challenge outcomes between centers is difficult despite common protocols and training. We recommend detailed symptom assessment and documentation as well as objective sign-based challenge outcome algorithms to assure accuracy and comparability of blinded food challenges. Training and supervision of staff conducting food challenges is a mandatory component of reliable outcome data. © 2017 EAACI and John Wiley and Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

In graduate programs such as social work, field education is the signature pedagogy of education. As such, student placement with an appropriate field education agency is critical to ensure academic success and career readiness. A variety of Learning Management System (LMS) and Integrated Planning and Advising Service (IPAS) technologies have been developed to fully integrate technology into the educational system and streamline and improve the learning experience for students, educators, and administrators. Few (if any) of the existing solutions have capabilities to match students with field educators on the basis of an individual student’s completed coursework and area of specialization, as well as field educator needs and opportunities. This paper describes our experience developing a custom LMS/IPAS system—the School of Social Work information System (SSWiS)—that was designed specifically for student learning, faculty advising, and academic administration within our social work graduate program. We present the challenges that motivated the design of the SSWiS before describing the architecture and functionality of our solution. We then discuss our preliminary evaluation results. We conclude with a discussion of the benefits and limitations of our system in the context of today’s technical needs in graduate education in social work and other fields.

Background Cow's milk allergy (CMA) is one of the most commonly reported childhood food problems. Community-based incidence and prevalence estimates vary widely, due to possible misinterpretations of presumed reactions to milk and differences in study design, particularly diagnostic criteria. Methods Children from the EuroPrevall birth cohort in 9 European countries with symptoms possibly related to CMA were invited for clinical evaluation including cows' milk-specific IgE antibodies (IgE), skin prick test (SPT) reactivity and double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge. Results Across Europe, 12 049 children were enrolled, and 9336 (77.5%) were followed up to 2 years of age. CMA was suspected in 358 children and confirmed in 55 resulting in an overall incidence of challenge-proven CMA of 0.54% (95% CI 0.41-0.70). National incidences ranged from 1% (in the Netherlands and UK) to

International audience

It is unclear why some children develop food allergy. The EuroPrevall birth cohort was established to examine regional differences in the prevalence and risk factors of food allergy in European children using gold-standard diagnostic criteria. The aim of this report was to describe pre-, post-natal and environmental characteristics among the participating countries. In nine countries across four major European climatic regions, mothers and their newborns were enrolled from October 2005 through February 2010. Using standardized questionnaires, we assessed allergic diseases and self-reported food hypersensitivity of parents and siblings, nutrition during pregnancy, nutritional supplements, medications, mode of delivery, socio-demographic data and home environmental exposures. A total of 12,049 babies and their families were recruited. Self-reported adverse reactions to food ever were considerably more common in mothers from Germany (30%), Iceland, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands (all 20-22%) compared with those from Italy (11%), Lithuania, Greece, Poland, and Spain (all 5-8%). Prevalence estimates of parental asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema were highest in north-west (Iceland, UK), followed by west (Germany, the Netherlands), south (Greece, Italy, Spain) and lowest in central and east Europe (Poland, Lithuania). Over 17% of Spanish and Greek children were exposed to tobacco smoke in utero compared with only 8-11% in other countries. Caesarean section rate was highest in Greece (44%) and lowest in Spain (