Historical and social science perspectives on food allergy
Smith, Matthew (2023) Historical and social science perspectives on food allergy. Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 53 (9). pp. 902-910. ISSN 0954-7894 (https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.14360)
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Abstract
This article provides an overview of the insights social scientists, historians and other health humanities scholars have made to our understanding of food allergies. It shows how humanities and social science scholars have tended to address three pivotal issues related to food allergies: first, they have addressed the epidemiology of food allergies, including the apparent rise in the rate of food allergies and the emergence of theories that purport to explain why food allergies may be increasing. These include theories related to changes in food consumption and the hygiene hypothesis. Second, humanities and social science scholars have researched how risks related to food allergies have been constructed, understood, experienced and mitigated. Third, humanities and social science scholars have investigated the experiences of food allergy sufferers and those who care for them, providing valuable qualitative insights that can inform how we respond to food allergy and our understanding of the aetiology of food allergy. The article concludes with three recommendations. First, there should be a more interdisciplinary approach to food allergy research that involves social scientists and health humanities scholars. Second, humanities and social sciences scholars should be more willing to unpack and scrutinise the theories put forward to explain the aetiology of food allergies, rather than accepting them at face value. And finally, humanities and social sciences scholars can play a major role in ensuring that the experiences of patients and their carers are articulated and fed into debates about food allergy, including its causes and how to respond to it.
ORCID iDs
Smith, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9267-2124;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 85923 Dates: DateEvent30 September 2023Published12 June 2023Published Online17 May 2023Accepted1 February 2023SubmittedSubjects: UNSPECIFIED Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Humanities > History Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 23 Jun 2023 09:22 Last modified: 30 Aug 2024 01:13 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/85923