Research Article

Adverse Reactions to Foods and Food Allergy: Development and Reproducibility of a Questionnaire for Clinical Diagnosis

Table 1

Evaluation of the test-retest reproducibility of the survey about adverse food reaction and food allergy according to Kappa concordance.

VariableObserved concordanceKappa value
(95% CI)
%

Age35 (35)100.01.00 (1.00-1.00)
Gender35 (35)100.01.00 (1.00-1.00)
Adverse food reactions
(A) Do you think your child has any health problems with any food?28 (35)80.00.64 (0.37–0.90)
(B) Which food do you think your child has any reaction to? 30 (35)85.70.70 (0.47–0.94)
(C) Did the reaction take place the first time you gave your child this type of food?28 (35)80.00.55 (0.29–0.80)
(D1) How long after eating did it take for the reaction to occur (up to 2 hours)?27 (35)77.10.44 (0.14–0.73)
(D2) How long after eating did it take for the reaction to occur (more than 2 hours)?27 (35)77.10.49 (0.20–0.77)
(E1) Did anybody else eat the same food?28 (35)80.00.25 (−0.16–0.68)
(E2) Did someone else also have the same reaction upon food ingestion?31 (35)88.60.28 (−0.25–0.80)
(F) What was the reaction your child had after eating this food?30 (35)85.70.71 (0.47–0.94)
(G) Has your child had any reaction when this food only touched her skin?35 (35)100.0 1.00 (1.00-1.00)
(H) Was there any need to seek medical care in a hospital?31 (35)88.60.67 (0.40–0.93)
(I) Did your child have to be given any medicine in the hospital?29 (35)82.80.55 (0.24–0.87)
(J) Did your child have to take any medicine at home?28 (35)80.00.58 (0.28–0.88)
(L) After the reaction did your child eat the same food again?28 (35)80.00.65 (0.40–0.90)
(M) Did your child have the same reaction when she ate the same food again?32 (35)91.40.76 (0.55–0.98)
(N) Did your child have another reaction upon eating the same food again?31 (35)88.6−0.08 (−0.35–0.19)
(O) When was the last time your child had a reaction to this food?24 (35)68.60.28 (−0.04–0.62)
(P) Did your child stop eating the food after having a reaction?28 (35)80.00.60 (0.33–0.87)
(Q) Did your child feel itching, swelling, or numbness in his/her mouth after eating any fruit or raw vegetable?35 (35)100.01.00 (1.00-1.00)

The questions listed above were written in a language which made them understandable for the family members.