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JACIOctober 1, 2010 at 6:07 AM
The authors respond: Although we also have the impression that food allergy is more common among darkly pigmented children in the northeastern US, such as children of Southeast Asian origin, we are not aware of studies on this issue. In a recent paper by Branum and Lukacs (Pediatrics 2009; 124: 1549-1555), the authors report a higher proportion of children with detectable food-specific IgE in the minority children (non-hispanic blacks > hispanics > non-hispanic whites), a finding that would support your observation. However, data on food allergy (identified with diagnostic codes) did not support this ranking; non-hispanic white children had the highest rates of recognized food allergy. We suspect, however, that there is substantial under-diagnosis of food allergy in US minority populations. We anticipate that broadening the racial/ethnic mix of research studies will expand our understanding of the health effects of sunlight and vitamin D, and clarify their possible contributions to the development and prevention of food allergy.