Food Allergies: Understanding the Issues From a Consumer Perspective

The aim of the present study is to identify and understand the issues that impact on the lives of adults with food allergies. Focus groups were held with four different groups of food allergic adults. Thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts was completed using NVIVO software. A number of key themes and sub-themes were identified and will be presented diagrammatically to illustrate their relative importance as well as the interaction between themes. The results from the focus groups indicate that the needs of food allergic consumers (in terms of healthcare as well as food supply) are not being effectively met. The focus group data also enabled the identification of potential approaches for the improvement of products and services for food allergic adults. The next part of this research involves the use of a real-time data capture method. An online survey will be developed based on the data from the focus group research. Participants (n = 100-200) will be asked to complete daily online surveys for a period of two weeks. The questions in the surveys ask the participants about what impact (if any) different food allergy-related issues have had on their lives on that particular day. The resulting data will allow us to quantify the relative impact of different issues on the lives of food allergic adults. This will then allow us to identify areas where future research is most warranted as well as identifying potential interventions that may be useful (e.g. new products or services).

Citation:

Rana Peniamina, Miranda Mirosa, Tamlin Conner, and Phil Bremer (2012) ,"Food Allergies: Understanding the Issues From a Consumer Perspective", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 10, eds. , , and , Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 69-70.