• Project status: Active
child eating peanut butter

The HealthNuts study is changing the way we understand food allergy.

This study is a world-first, longitudinal, population-based study of food allergy, which will help us to better understand risk factors for and the natural history of food allergies in childhood.

This study is a world-first, longitudinal, population-based study of food allergy, which will help us to better understand risk factors for and the natural history of food allergies in childhood.

The HealthNuts study is changing the way we understand food allergy. Food allergy is a significant public health burden affecting 10% of 1-year-old infants in Melbourne, Australia—the highest reported prevalence internationally. Other allergic diseases, including eczema, asthma, and hay fever, are also major public health problems.

We will be the world’s first study to accurately describe the natural history of food allergy and other allergic diseases from childhood to adolescence. This will help us find risk factors for food allergy that will inform preventative strategies, and understand why some children with food allergy will outgrow the condition while others have lifelong disease.

We want to understand the impact of early life allergies on children’s health and wellbeing as they move into the adolescent years, to understand the long-term health impacts of this common childhood condition.HealthNuts banner

Study details

Beginning in 2007, HealthNuts recruited 5,300 children at 12 months of age, where they were tested for possible food allergy at local immunisation centres. Around 1,000 came to the HealthNuts clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital for further testing to confirm a food allergy diagnosis.

The HealthNuts children were followed-up at age four (4) years and children with a previous food allergy, or those reporting new symptoms of a food allergy, were invited to the Royal Children's Hospital for further allergy testing.

At ages six (6) and 10 years, we invited the HealthNuts children to take part in an allergy and health assessment, which included food allergy testing, eczema examination, lung function testing, growth measurements and retinal imagery.

The 15-year-old follow-up begun in 2022, and teenagers will be asked to complete an allergy and health assessment, as well as complete questionnaires to understand the impact that food allergy and other allergic conditions have on their, and their peers, lives.

Contact us

HealthNuts

Murdoch Children's Research Institute
The Royal Children's Hospital
50 Flemington Road
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia

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child in hospital

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