HomeCall for participants: A study on food allergy in twins

Call for participants: A study on food allergy in twins

October 20, 2017

The START Twin Study

If you are a parent of a twin or twins with food allergy or are an adult twin with food allergy, you are invited to participate in a study that began last year called START (Susceptibility To Food Allergy in a Registry of Twins).

The call for participants has been extended from earlier this year.

Please see the note below from the research team for the details on the study and how to participate.

From the research team:

The research team, led by Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan of the division of allergy and immunology at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre, is looking at the role played by genes (many of which are the same between twins) in the development of food allergy.

If you already participated in this study last year, thank you for helping to further this research. At this time, we are inviting new participants for this study.

You do not need to live in Montreal to participate in this study. Participation will involve:

  • Completing a secure online questionnaire related to food allergy, the environmental and medical aspects of the early experiences of each twin, and their past and present diets. It should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
  • Providing a small saliva sample from each twin and medical confirmation of food allergies to help the researchers understand how genetic and environmental factors interact with food allergies.

To be eligible, at least one twin must have received a food allergy diagnosis from an allergist, a family doctor or pediatrician, and live in Canada. Please contact an allergist if you have questions about your or your children’s allergies.

Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You may refuse to participate or you may discontinue your participation at any time without explanation. All information obtained during this study will be kept strictly confidential. The research data will be available only to the research team and to persons taking part in managing and analyzing the research information. Your saliva sample will only be used for this study and will be destroyed at the completion of the study. This study has been approved by the Research Ethics Board of the McGill University Health Centre which is also responsible for the oversight of the study.

To participate in this study or for more details, please contact Greg Shand, the study coordinator, by December 31, 2017 at 514-934-1934, ext. 23867 or startmch@gmail.com.

To read an article about this research, please visit our blog section or click here.