The impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) plays a key role for patients suffering from allergies and anaphylaxis. In this narrative review we review the HRQL in allergic patients suffering from food and venom allergy, both being the most frequent elicitors of severe allergic, potential life-threatening reactions and provide an overview on the current knowledge and identified gaps.
The data show that for food and venom allergy standardized assessment tools to measure HRQL are available and have been successfully applied. Our analysis shows that multiple factors can modulate HRQL in these patient groups. These include sociodemographic data like patients' age and sex, fear of accidental reactions but also external factors like the social environment and the appreciation of the seriousness of the condition by others. External factors may have a significant impact on HRQL and should be considered in patient-related outcome assessments to avoid biased measurements possibly affecting the results. The assessment of the quality of life in the context of specific immunotherapy should consider lifestyle factors and ideally, the individual change in HRQL should be measured.
Although there are many data indicating a negative impact on HRQL in food allergic children and their caregivers, limited data are existing from adults with food allergy and venom allergic patients from all age groups. Also, the use of standardized questionnaires should be extended to allow for a better comparability of results between studies. Therefore, translation to additional languages is necessary.
Taken together, the eliciting allergen, the severity of the allergic disease but moreover multiple external factors impact the outcome in HRQL and should be considered in HRQL assessment.
