Allergy Diagnosis Increased in Rural and Urban Areas over 10-Year Period

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Food allergy prevalence is growing not only in urban centers, but rural areas as well.

According to a study of private health insurance claims, conducted by the non-profit FAIR Health, there was an increase of 110 percent of food allergy diagnosis in rural settings compared to 70 percent growth in larger cities from 2007 to 2016.

The FAIR Health study is based on data drawn from a massive private health insurance claims database of more than 150 million individuals. The analysis includes anaphylactic food reaction trends, demographic trends, health-care costs – and it also considered prevalence of food allergy on a state-by-state basis.

Maine saw the biggest uptick in food allergy diagnosis claims, with an increase of 391 percent. The top 10 list of state increases are:

Maine – 391 percent
North Carolina – 332 percent
California – 316 percent
Delaware – 314 percent
New Hampshire – 282 percent
Kentucky – 280 percent
Texas – 259 percent
Oklahoma – 215 percent
Pennsylvania – 213 percent
Connecticut – 210 percent

“From Maine to California, the massive increase in food allergy medical claims reinforces the need for advances in treatments and diagnostic tools to save lives and improve the quality of life for the millions of people living with food allergies,” Lisa Gable, CEO of Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), noted of this new analysis of the data.

Earlier results from the study had revealed an increase of 377 percent in health claims for the emergency treatment of severe anaphylactic food reactions.

See more in FARE’s press release.