Background: Food allergy (FA) may negatively impact on quality of life (FAQoL) of both children/adolescents and their caregivers. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of FAQoL may be helpful to provide an adequate support to diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of FA. The Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire-Parent Form (FAQLQ-PF) has been developed and validated to assess parental perception of FA-QoL in children aged 0–12 years. Objective: To assess the impact of FA on parent perceived FAQoL in a large Italian paediatric FA population using the Italian FAQLQ-PF; to better understand if any demographic characteristic at baseline and/or other factors might relate with a worse FAQoL outcome. Methods: We assessed the impact of patients’ characteristics (including FA duration) on the global FAQLQ-PF score (GS) and for all its three subscale scores. All variables significantly relating to the subscale scores were introduced into a multiple linear regression model. The independent correlates of the GS were investigated by multiple logistic regression analyses. Results: GS and subscales scores increased with older age. Alongside age, CMA , history of anaphylactic reaction/epinephrine prescription, number of avoided foods were the main independent factors that negatively affected FAQoL. We also found a direct and strong correlation between FA duration and GS. Conclusion: We furtherly statistically validated the Italian version of FAQLQ-PF and identified independent variables associated with a negative FA-QoL in a large Italian group of children. This might be helpful for a proper management of FA patients at individual level.
