# The role of food allergy‐related worry and self‐efficacy in explaining quality of life in caregivers of children

## TL;DR

This study shows that caregivers of children with food allergies experience more worry and lower quality of life, especially for younger children, and that improving self-efficacy could help.

## Contribution

The study provides validation for a revised WAFA scale and examines age-related differences in caregiver worry and self-efficacy.

## Key findings

- The revised WAFA scale showed excellent reliability across age groups.
- Caregivers of younger children reported more worry and less self-efficacy than those of teenagers.
- Worry was the strongest predictor of lower quality of life in caregivers.

## Abstract

Food allergy (FA) is associated with considerable worry and poorer quality of life (QOL) in caregivers. High self‐efficacy for managing FA might reduce this impact but these relationships have not been examined with FA‐specific measures. This study aimed to explore relationships between worry, QoL and self‐efficacy using FA‐specific measures and provide further validation data for a revised Worry About Food Allergy (WAFA) scale, enabling differences in worry across child age to be examined.

Caregivers of children with a food allergy (n = 240), recruited through patient organizations, completed the Worry About Food Allergy (WAFA) scale, Food Allergy Quality of Life Parental Burden Scale (FAQL‐PB), Food Allergy Self‐Efficacy scale for Parents (FASE‐P) and clinical and demographic questions.

The revised WAFA demonstrated excellent reliability for the full pre‐school, child and teen versions (Cronbach's alphas .95–.96) and short‐form versions (Cronbach's alpha .87–.92). Caregivers of 0‐5 year olds had significantly more FA‐related worry and less self‐efficacy for managing FA in social occasions than caregivers of 12–17 year olds (ps < .05); caregivers of 6–11 year olds reported poorer QoL than those of 12–17 year olds (p < .05). Caregiver‐reported FA severity, child age, greater worry and poorer self‐efficacy correlated with poorer QoL (all ps < .05–.01) and in regression models were significantly associated with QoL (all ps < .001), explaining 70% of the variance, with worry being the largest predictor.

Caregivers of younger children may feel greater worry and burden of FA compared to caregivers of teenagers. Reducing FA‐worry and increasing FA‐self‐efficacy should be prime targets to improve FA‐QoL in caregivers.