Publications by authors named "Michael Perkin"

Article Synopsis
  • Atopic eczema is a frequent skin condition in children that can decrease their quality of life and is associated with other allergic conditions like asthma and food allergies.
  • The study aimed to see if applying daily emollients in the first year of life could prevent eczema and other related atopic diseases in infants at high risk.
  • The trial involved over 1,300 newborns, with results showing a slight difference in eczema rates at age 2, suggesting emollient use may have a modest protective effect.
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Background: Cow's milk allergy (CMA) overdiagnosis in young children appears to be increasing and has not been well characterised. We used a clinical trial population to characterise CMA overdiagnosis and identify individual-level and primary care practice-level risk factors.

Methods: We analysed data from 1394 children born in England in 2014-2016 (BEEP trial, ISRCTN21528841).

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Background: Various biomarkers are used to define peanut allergy (PA). We aimed to observe changes in PA resolution and persistence over time comparing biomarkers in PA and peanut sensitised but tolerant (PS) children in a population-based cohort.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the EAT and EAT-On studies, conducted across England and Wales, and were exclusively breastfeed babies recruited at 3 months old and followed up until 7-12 years old.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explores whether reducing the frequency of bathing infants in the first six months can help prevent eczema, proposing the need for a well-designed intervention to support parents in this approach.* -
  • It involved interviews with families to identify challenges and motivators, which were then integrated into effective behavior change strategies and materials through collaboration with experts and families.* -
  • Key findings highlighted that social influences, emotional rewards, and family support can encourage adherence to the intervention, while hygiene concerns and fear of judgment may hinder participation.*
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Objective: To summarise and critically appraise systematic review (SR) evidence on the effects of timing of complementary feeding (CF) on the occurrence of allergic sensitisation and disease.

Design: Overview of SRs. AMSTAR-2 and ROBIS were used to assess methodological quality and risk of bias (RoB) of SRs.

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Background: Recent discoveries have led to the suggestion that enhancing skin barrier from birth might prevent eczema and food allergy.

Objective: To determine the cost-effectiveness of daily all-over-body application of emollient during the first year of life for preventing atopic eczema in high-risk children at 2 years from a health service perspective. We also considered a 5-year time horizon as a sensitivity analysis.

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Importance: Earlier egg and peanut introduction probably reduces risk of egg and peanut allergy, respectively, but it is uncertain whether food allergy as a whole can be prevented using earlier allergenic food introduction.

Objective: To investigate associations between timing of allergenic food introduction to the infant diet and risk of food allergy.

Data Sources: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, Medline, Embase, and CENTRAL databases were searched for articles from database inception to December 29, 2022.

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Food allergy is a chronic disease that affects individuals of all ages and is a significant public health problem globally. This narrative overview examines clinical management strategies for IgE-mediated food allergy in children around the world to understand variations in practice. Information was drawn from clinical practice guidelines, recent research, the websites of professional and governmental bodies with expertise in food allergy, and clinical experts from a broad cross-section of geographical regions.

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In 1989, a short paper entitled "Hay fever, hygiene and household size" observed that British children from larger families were less likely to develop hay fever and suggested that this could be because early exposure to infection prevents allergy. This sibship size association for hay fever, since replicated many times in Britain and other affluent countries and confirmed by objective measures of atopy, prompted what has come to be known as the "hygiene hypothesis for allergy", although that term was not specifically used in the 1989 paper. The present paper reviews the historical roots of the "hygiene hypothesis" and charts its development over more than 30 years.

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Background: The Learning Early About Peanut allergy (LEAP) study has shown the effectiveness of early peanut introduction in prevention of peanut allergy (PA). In the Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study, a statistically significant reduction in PA was present only in per-protocol (PP) analyses, which can be subject to bias.

Objective: The aim of this study was to combine individual-level data from the LEAP and EAT trials and provide robust evidence on the bias-corrected, causal effect of early peanut introduction.

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Background: The effectiveness of emollients for preventing atopic dermatitis/eczema is controversial. The Barrier Enhancement for Eczema Prevention trial evaluated the effects of daily emollients during the first year of life on atopic dermatitis and atopic conditions to age 5 years.

Methods: 1394 term infants with a family history of atopic disease were randomized (1:1) to daily emollient plus standard skin-care advice (693 emollient group) or standard skin-care advice alone (701 controls).

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Background: Comprehensive national assessments of paediatric allergy services are rarely undertaken, and have never been undertaken in the United Kingdom. A 2006 survey estimated national capacity at 30,000 adult or paediatric new allergy appointments per year and identified 58 hospital clinics offering a paediatric allergy service.

Objective: The UK Paediatric Allergy Services Survey was the first comprehensive assessment of UK paediatric allergy service provision.

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The WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Federation of International Societies for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition held a joint workshop, "Moving Complementary Feeding Forward" at the sixth World Congress Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in 2021. Here we summarize workshop presentations and discussions. The workshop covered health implications of complementary feeding (CF) including allergies, challenges to meet dietary needs during the CF period, quality of commercial complementary foods (CFD) and respective marketing practices, national CF guidelines in Europe, a nutrient profiling system for CFD, and global policy perspectives on the standards and regulation of marketing for CFD.

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Introduction: Asthma is a growing health problem in children in marginalised urban settings in low-income and middle-income countries. Asthma attacks are an important cause of emergency care attendance and long-term morbidity. We designed a prospective study, the Asthma Attacks study, to identify factors associated with recurrence of asthma attacks (or exacerbations) among children and adolescents attending emergency care in three Ecuadorian cities.

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Background: There is significant overdiagnosis of milk allergy in young children in some countries, leading to unnecessary use of specialized formula. This guidance, developed by experts without commercial ties to the formula industry, aims to reduce milk allergy overdiagnosis and support carers of children with suspected milk allergy.

Methods: Delphi study involving two rounds of anonymous consensus building and an open meeting between January and July 2021.

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Background: Previous reports suggested that food proteins present in human milk (HM) may trigger symptoms in allergic children during breastfeeding, but existing evidence has never been reviewed systematically.

Objective: To assess the probability of food proteins in HM to trigger allergic reactions in infants with IgE-mediated food allergy.

Methods: Electronic bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE) were systematically searched from inception to November 3, 2021.

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Background: Non-IgE-mediated Cow's Milk Allergy (CMA) has a prevalence of less than 1% in children. Guidelines developed to help non-specialists diagnose CMA may lead to misattribution of normal symptoms and contribute to overdiagnosis of CMA. We sought to establish the frequency of symptoms during infancy associated with non-IgE-mediated CMA, using the international Milk Allergy in Primary Care (iMAP) guideline as representative of CMA guidelines more generally.

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Research data derived from observational studies are accumulating quickly in the field of allergy and immunology and a large amount of observational studies are published every year. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the adherence to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist by papers published in the three European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology journals, during the period 2009-2018. To this end, we conducted a bibliographic study of up to eight randomly selected papers per year per Journal.

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