The healthcare experiences and psychological support needs of adults and caregivers managing food allergy

Caity Roleston; Jennifer L. P. Protudjer; Linda J. Herbert; Christina J. Jones; Chris Warren; Helen A. Brough; Mahboob Miah; Nicola O'Donnell; Hodan Omar; Wendy Ennifer; Mary Jane Marchisotto; Rebecca C. Knibb

doi:10.1177/13591053261429012

The healthcare experiences and psychological support needs of adults and caregivers managing food allergy

Caity Roleston
, Jennifer L. P. Protudjer
, Linda J. Herbert
, Christina J. Jones
, Chris Warren
, Helen A. Brough
, Mahboob Miah
, Nicola O'Donnell
, Hodan Omar
, Wendy Ennifer
, Mary Jane Marchisotto
, Rebecca C. Knibb^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Manitoba
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
Karolinska Institutet
Children's National Medical Center
George Washington University School of Medicine
Northwestern University, Evanston
Evelina London Children's Healthcare
King's College London
MJM Advisory

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Food allergy (FA) related distress is common in patients and caregivers, however, there is little funding for psychological support within allergy clinics. As part of the Global Access to Psychological Services for Food Allergy (GAPS) study, we explored adults’ and caregivers’ experiences with healthcare services in the UK and their FA-related psychological support needs. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 adults with FA and 14 caregivers of children with FA and analysed using template analysis. Three themes were constructed from the data: “Road to diagnosis and getting past the gatekeeper,” “Support for managing FA inside and outside the healthcare system” and “The need for a holistic healthcare approach.” There is need for greater understanding of FA, particularly within primary care. Access to psychological services within the multidisciplinary healthcare allergy team would provide patients and families with the holistic care they require and reduce the need for costly private services.

Original language	English
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Health Psychology
Early online date	18 Mar 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053261429012
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 18 Mar 2026

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by Aimmune, Novartis, National Peanut Board and European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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10.1177/13591053261429012Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0

roleston-et-al-2026-the-healthcare-experiences-and-psychological-support-needs-of-adults-and-caregivers-managing-food
Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Final published version, 239 KBLicence: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Roleston, C., Protudjer, J. L. P., Herbert, L. J., Jones, C. J., Warren, C., Brough, H. A., Miah, M., O'Donnell, N., Omar, H., Ennifer, W., Marchisotto, M. J., & Knibb, R. C. (2026). The healthcare experiences and psychological support needs of adults and caregivers managing food allergy. Journal of Health Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053261429012

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abstract = "Food allergy (FA) related distress is common in patients and caregivers, however, there is little funding for psychological support within allergy clinics. As part of the Global Access to Psychological Services for Food Allergy (GAPS) study, we explored adults{\textquoteright} and caregivers{\textquoteright} experiences with healthcare services in the UK and their FA-related psychological support needs. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 adults with FA and 14 caregivers of children with FA and analysed using template analysis. Three themes were constructed from the data: “Road to diagnosis and getting past the gatekeeper,” “Support for managing FA inside and outside the healthcare system” and “The need for a holistic healthcare approach.” There is need for greater understanding of FA, particularly within primary care. Access to psychological services within the multidisciplinary healthcare allergy team would provide patients and families with the holistic care they require and reduce the need for costly private services.",

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AU - Brough, Helen A.

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AU - Marchisotto, Mary Jane

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N1 - Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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N2 - Food allergy (FA) related distress is common in patients and caregivers, however, there is little funding for psychological support within allergy clinics. As part of the Global Access to Psychological Services for Food Allergy (GAPS) study, we explored adults’ and caregivers’ experiences with healthcare services in the UK and their FA-related psychological support needs. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 22 adults with FA and 14 caregivers of children with FA and analysed using template analysis. Three themes were constructed from the data: “Road to diagnosis and getting past the gatekeeper,” “Support for managing FA inside and outside the healthcare system” and “The need for a holistic healthcare approach.” There is need for greater understanding of FA, particularly within primary care. Access to psychological services within the multidisciplinary healthcare allergy team would provide patients and families with the holistic care they require and reduce the need for costly private services.

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The healthcare experiences and psychological support needs of adults and caregivers managing food allergy

Abstract

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