doi 10.17992/lbl.2026.01.872

David Gislason¹

Michael Clausen²

Sigurveig T. Sigurdardottir^1,3

¹Allergy and Clinical Immunology Outpatient Department,

Landspitali University Hospital, ²Children´s Hospital, Reykjavik,

Iceland, ³Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland

Correspondence: Sigurveig Sigur›ardottir, veiga@landspitali.is

Key words: Food allergy, Iceland, children, adults, prevalence, allergy

Abstract 

Food allergy has been increasing in the Western world and is now considered to be a major public health concern. Iceland is there no exception. Nothing was known about the prevalence of food allergy in Iceland until the end of the last century. Then, and at the beginning of this century, Icelanders were participants in international studies on food allergy. The first one in 18-month-old children, showing food allergy in 1.85%, the most common being egg allergy. In The European Community Respiratory Health Survey, IgE antibodies to six foods were positive in 1.8%, but 7,7% when tested to 24 foods. Other studies were carried out 10 years later. In 7- 10-years-old children, 11% had IgE antibodies when tested for 24 foods and 1.9% had food allergies, most to eggs. In adults aged 20-54, 6.55% had IgE antibodies to the same foods and 1.4% had allergies. In a birth cohort, 1.86% had a confirmed food allergy in the first year, and by two years of age, 0.62% had milk allergy and 1.47% had egg allergy. At 6-10-years, 8.7% had a doctor-confirmed food allergy. In this review article, we discuss the main research on food allergies that have been conducted in Iceland.

 

 

Table I. Composition of research groups and results of food allergy research in Iceland The table shows the prevalence of food allergy (%) in different studies 1994-2015.
Studies	Age	Number	Allergy/intol. according to participants	Positive skin tests	Positive sIgE	Diagnosed with allergy
Kristjánsson⁵	18 months	324	27.0%	1.5%	-	1.85%
Gíslason⁸	20-44 years	567/502	22.0%	-	1.8%	-
Burney⁹	20-39 years	320	-	-	7.7%	-
Lyons¹²	7-10 years	2248	16.7%	-	11.0%	1.9%
Lyons¹³	20-54 years	2078	33.5%	-	6.55%	1.4%
Kristinsdóttir¹⁵	12 months	1341	-	1.57%	2.98%	1.86%
Grabenhenrich²¹	6-10 years	945*	20.1%*	-	-	1.4-3.8%**

*Figures from Reykjavik

** Average for the 8 cities in Europe

 

Table II. Results from allergy studies on 7 – 10 year old children and 20 – 54-year-old individuals (%).
Rannsóknir	Reykjavik	Zurich	Sofía	Utrect	Lodz	Vilníus	Madríd	Athens
Lyons¹³ Percentage of children aged 7-10 years whose parents considered them to have allergies	16,7	16,3	19,7	17,1	43,4	47,5	17,9	13,1
Lyons¹³ sIgE antibodies to priority food in 7–10-year-old children	11,0	28,7	-	22,7	16,7	17,8	28,5	23,3
Lyons¹³ Probable allergy to priority foods in 7–10-year-old children	1,9	2,3	-	3,0	5,6	3,0	3,9	2,0
Lyons¹⁴ Adults 20-54 years old who considered themselves to have food allergies	33,5	37,3	2,9	25,1	28,9	1,7	33,7	14,4
Burney¹⁵ sIgE antibodies to food in individuals aged 20-54 years	6,5	23,6	12,5	17,6	13,9	-	19,5	-
Burney¹⁵ IgE antibodies to food in individuals aged 20-54 years	1,4	5,6	-	2,1	2,8	-	3,3	0,3
*Priority food 1: eggs, cow's milk, cod, shrimp, peanuts, hazelnuts, apples, peaches, celery root.

Table III. Risk and environmental factors
Risk and environmental factors (%)¹⁷	Reykjavik	Southampton	Amsterdam	Berlin	Lodz	Vilnius	Madrid	Milano	Athens	Average
Baby born by cesarean section	12,8	30,8	11,0	31,1	37,5	15,6	2,5	30,8	44,2	24,0
Antibiotics in the first week of life	6,4	0,5	2,9	3,9	5,8	0,6	1,4	22,1	1,4	15,9
Passive smoking after birth	3,4	8,2	21,6	34,7	26,8	8,3	11,5	10,6	31,8	17,4
Cats in the home	11,4	28,4	26,8	15,0	15,1	22,0	5,5	10,6	3,7	15,1
Dogs in the home	9,3	17,9	14,1	9,0	34,8	21,6	13,6	10,8	10,2	16,0
Carpet in the bedroom	0,0	86,7	19,6	40,	21,7	30,2	5,4	2,2	38,4	26,0
Living in a rural area but not on a farm	6,9	6,9	0,6	2,2	16,9	9,5	12,3	8,3	6,8	14,6
History of maternal food allergies	19,7	22,3	22,0	30,2	6,5	5,1	8,3	10,7	5,7	14,3
History of father's food allergy	12,1	12,3	15,7	19,0	3,6	1,0	5,5	8,2	2,8	8,6
A sibling's history of food allergies	16,4	16,0	25,6	14,5	32,5	9,7	9,8	10,5	5,1	15,6

Table IV. Results from allergy studies on children from birth to 10 years of age. The table shows prevalence (%) of food allergy in 9 cities in Europe based on the EuropPrevall study 2005 – 2010 and the iFAAM study 2014 – 2017. N shows number of participants in EuroPrevall/iFAAM.
Studies	Reykjavik N=1341/848	Southampton N= 1140/350	Amsterdam N= 976/628	Berlin N= 1570/ 970	Lodz N= 1513/837	Vilnius N= 1556/833	Madrid N= 1387/589	Milano N= 1486/-	Athens N= 1080/517
Schoemaker¹⁸ Milk allergy up to 2-years of age	0,62	1,26	1,08	0,28	0,60	0,23	0,69	0,30	0,0
Xepapadaki¹⁹ Egg allergy up to 2-years of age	1,47	1,95	1,49	0,84	0,60	0,15	0,78	0,44	0,11
Grabenhenrich²² Food allergy in 6-10 years old school children according to parents.	20,1	20,7	19,8	17,2	22,0	12,3	11,2	1)	4,1

¹Milan did not participate in the iFAAM study.