iREACH Study Aims to Enhance Prevention of Peanut Allergy in Pediatric Practices

The Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research (CFAAR), at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, announced the launch of the Intervention to Reduce Early Peanut Allergy in Children (iREACH) study. iREACH is a five-year, randomized clinical trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aimed at assessing and improving pediatric clinician adherence to the 2017 prevention of peanut allergy guidelines developed by an expert panel sponsored by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The PPA guidelines were developed based on the landmark Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study, which showed that of peanut-containing foods during infancy significantly reduced the incidence of peanut allergy. Building on LEAP, the iREACH study has two principal objectives: to determine the effectiveness of iREACH interventions, both the clinical decision support and education, in increasing adherence to the guidelines among pediatric clinicians and to determine the effectiveness of iREACH in decreasing the incidence of peanut allergy by age 2.5 years.

“Through supporting pediatric clinicians in adhering to the guidelines, we have an achievable way to prevent peanut allergy and reduce incidence, which is exciting,” Dr. Ruchi Gupta, the study principal investigator, notes.

The prevalence of peanut allergy remains alarmingly high in the U.S. Currently, around 2.2 percent of the pediatric population has been diagnosed with peanut allergy, a three-fold increase within the past two decades. Peanut allergy accounts for a quarter of pediatric food allergy and severe food allergies are the most common among children with peanut allergy. The iREACH study will help combat these trends. In collaboration with the Pediatric Practice Research Group (PPRG) at Lurie Children’s Hospital, more than 30 pediatric practices from urban, suburban, and rural Illinois communities are participating in the study. The group aims to follow approximately 10,500 infants until they reach 2.5 years of age by studying the pediatric clinician’s use of the guidelines through electronic medical health records and surveys.

Dr. Gupta is the Mary Ann and J. Milburn Smith Research Professor for a Sr. Scientist in Child Health Research at the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Lurie Children’s. She also is Director of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research (CFAAR) based at Lurie Children’s and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Funding for this study is provided by NIAID, part of the NIH (U01AI138907 –  PI: Gupta).

Research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children’s is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report. It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Last year, the hospital served more than 212,000 children from 49 states and 51 countries.