Investigation of healthy lifestyle in parents of 0-6 year old children with food allergy and non-food allergy

Objective: This study aimed to examine the difference between healthy lifestyle behaviors of parents of 0-6-year-old children with food allergies and non-food allergies. Material and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with the parents of 153 children aged 0-6 years with food and non-food allergies admitted to Aydın Obstetrics, Gynecology and Child Diseases Hospital between September 2022 and September 2023. "Personal Information Form" and "Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II" were used to collect the data. The data were analysed using Mann Whitney-U, chi-square test from non-parametric tests and Student-t test from parametric tests. values at p<0.05 level were considered statistically significant. Results: Among the parents, 80.4% were mothers, 54.9% were housewives, and 49.7% were university graduates. The mean age of the parents whose children had food allergy was 30.71±4.79; the parents whose children had non-food allergy was 34.58±5.56. 64.1% of the children were male and 56.9% did not attend school. The most common allergy in children with food allergy was egg allergy (68.4%) and allergy to grass pollen (64.9%) in non-food allergies. The mean total score of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II was 135.38±19.45 for parents of food allergic children and 139.09±24.11 for parents of non-food allergic children. There was no significant difference between the total scores of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II between the parents of children with food allergy and non-food allergy (t= -1.048, p= 0.297). While no significant difference was found in terms of health responsibility, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations and stress management subscales of the scale, the physical activity subscale mean score of parents of children with non-food allergies was higher than those with food allergies (t= -1.986, p= 0.049). Conclusion: While there was no difference in the healthy lifestyle behaviors of parents with food allergic and non-food allergic children, it was concluded that parents with non-food allergic children had better lifestyles only for the "Physical Activity" subscale. It may be recommended that healthcare professionals should give importance to this issue in order to improve the healthy lifestyle of individuals in vulnerable groups. Keywords: Food allergy, Child, Parents, Healthy lifestyle, Dietetics