For many Americans, milk, eggs, and peanut butter are grocery staples. But for millions of children, they are the most likely source of a foodborne allergic reaction.
“Peanuts are one of the most prevalent food allergies among children — affecting an estimated 2 million — and among the least likely to be outgrown,” says Lucy Bilaver, Ph.D., associate professor of Pediatrics. “Although treatments are on the horizon, primary prevention is still the best option and evidence suggests that introducing peanut protein to an infant’s diet early in life is an effective way to prevent the condition."
This means that pediatricians are needed to get this message out to caregivers of infants. How to ensure that messaging is received is the focus of Bilaver’s newly awarded Translational Science Pilot grant.
“This represents my first project to use implementation science and the pilot is an incredible opportunity to build preliminary data for a large implementation trial,” she says. “The Intervention to Reduce Early (Peanut) Allergy in Children (iREACH) study has allowed us to collaborate with 30 pediatric practices, but we know that we can generate knowledge to successfully implement the successful intervention outside of our randomized controlled trial.”
Bilaver’s grant was one of three recently awarded as part of the 2023 Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute Translational Science Pilot Award program. Other Pilot awardees include Katherine Collison, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and research faculty member at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, and Faraz Ahmad, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Preventive Medicine (Health and Biomedical Informatics)…
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