Non-medically diagnosed food intolerances in the Australian population

Abstract

Background: A substantial proportion of the Australian adult population associates negative physical and behavioural symptoms with food consumption. The aim of the present study was to investigate psychological factors potentially implicated in the noted discrepancy between reported and medically confirmed food hypersensitivity. Methods: A randomly selected national sample of 946 adult respondents (58.9% female) to a postal survey reported on food intolerances, including symptoms and sources of diagnoses. Participants completed measures of health-related attitudes and behaviours, personality, and reasoning style. Findings: Many participants (19.8%) reported intolerances, most commonly to lactose, gluten, wheat, dairy, and food additives. Non-diagnosed and complementary-medicine diagnosed but not medically diagnosed intolerances were consistently predicted by individual differences, particularly in health-related attitudes, health locus of control, somatosensory amplification, and neuroticism. Discussion: The findings confirm the high prevalence of non-medically diagnosed food intolerances in the Australian population and identify psychological factors implicated in the attribution of adverse symptoms to the consumption of particular food substances. Public health implications of non-medically diagnosed food intolerances and comparisons with functional disorders are discussed.