If your child is ages 8yrs or over, your child and you may be invited to complete some additional tasks during your participation in the BAT2 study. These tasks are optional and will not affect your child’s participation in the wider BAT2 study, nor the care they receive.
Why have my child and I been asked to take part?
You both have been asked to take part because your child is having tests to see whether they have a food allergy. The purpose of the tasks we are inviting you to do, in addition to the allergy tests, is to understand the relationship between living with food allergy and children’s mental health and cognition. In particular, children with food allergies tend to have higher levels of anxiety than those without any food allergies, including children whose diets are also restricted due to other medical issues (such as type-1 diabetes).
What are these additional tasks?
These additional tasks involve the following:
- Anxiety Questionnaires and Cognitive Task: We will ask your child to complete some anxiety questionnaires and a short memory task, before and after their oral food challenge.
- Involvement of the parent or guardian: We will also ask you, the parent or guardian, to complete some short anxiety questionnaires.
- Follow up visit: We will ask your and child to return for a follow up visit 4-6 weeks after the oral food challenge. You and your child will be asked to complete the anxiety questionnaires and cognitive tasks. We will also collect an additional blood sample from your child.
What will happen on the day?
Baseline Visit
The first part of these additional tasks will take place the day of your food challenge, both before and after the oral food challenge. They will not interfere with your child’s oral food challenge, nor will they compromise the care that your child will receive during their visit.
Anxiety Questionnaires:
The anxiety measures will be read out loud to your child, and your child will be prompted to answer with one of four responses.
Example Anxiety Question:
In the last month, how often did you feel worried or nervous about your food allergy?
Never; Once a month; Once a week; A few times a week; Every day
Paper copies of the parental/guardian anxiety questionnaires will be given to you to fill out while your child conducts their additional tasks.
Cognitive Task:
The cognitive task will be conducted on a laptop. During the first stage of the task, your child will view a set of images and will be asked to identify them as ‘indoor’ or ‘outdoor’ items. During the second stage of the task, your child will view another set of images, and will be asked to identify them as ‘new’ (not seen before), ‘similar’ (like those seen before), or ‘same’ (seen before).
Example Images from the Cognitive Task:
Follow Up Visit
Tasks, including the anxiety questionnaire and the cognitive task, will be conducted as described for the baseline visit, but 4-6 weeks later. Blood collection will take place either before or after the task completion, depending on whether numbing cream will be used to draw blood.