What happens, when, and what you were near.
Allergy is an immune response to something harmless — pollen, animal proteins, foods, drugs, stings. The pattern gives most of the answer: what happened, how long after exposure, how long it lasted, and whether it repeats with the same trigger. Testing confirms a suspicion; it is poor at generating one.
Worth answering if you get recurring reactions and want the pattern written down before allergy testing, rather than reconstructed in the room.
- Sneezing, a blocked or streaming nose, itchy eyes — seasonally or around animals
- A reaction that repeats with the same trigger
- Hives, or a flare of eczema after contact with something
- Wheeze or cough after exposure rather than after exertion
- Reactions to a medicine, or to particular foods
Any reaction involving swelling of the lips or throat, difficulty breathing or faintness is anaphylaxis until proven otherwise: adrenaline and emergency care, not a questionnaire.
Three steps, in the order a clinician takes them.
- 1
The pattern carries the diagnosis
What happened, how long after exposure, how long it lasted, and whether it repeats with the same thing. Testing confirms a suspicion; it is poor at generating one, which is why the history is taken first and in detail.
- 2
Then targeted testing, not a panel
Skin prick tests or specific IgE blood tests, chosen from the history. Broad untargeted panels produce positives to things you tolerate perfectly well, and those lead to needless avoidance.
- 3
Then a plan proportional to the risk
Avoidance where practical, medication for symptoms, immunotherapy for some triggers, and an adrenaline auto-injector where anaphylaxis is a risk. A positive test on its own is not an allergy — the reaction has to match it.
You walk away with a page you can hand over.
About a minute and a half. It asks about your history only, scores it the way the source document scores it, and gives you the answers back as something worth mentioning, worth bringing and worth asking — in a file you can download. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not predict anything.
Take the questionnaire- A note of each reaction: what, when, how long after, and how long it lasted
- Photographs of any rash or swelling — they fade before appointments
- Everything you already avoid, and whether avoiding it actually helped
- Any antihistamine taken in the days before testing, which can affect results
The allergy questionnaire
Eight questions about your history and four about what you already do to avoid triggers. The second four can lower the score.
- 12questions
- a minute and a half.to finish
- Nothing savedanswers stay in this tab
This is the questionnaire domain of ONU’s own model, not a diagnosis and not a probability. An allergy is confirmed by skin or blood testing, not by a set of questions.
Straight answers, including the awkward ones.
Is an intolerance the same as an allergy?
No. An allergy is an immune response and can be immediate and dangerous; an intolerance, such as to lactose, is a digestive problem that is unpleasant but not life-threatening. They are tested for differently, and calling one the other leads either to needless fear or to missed risk.
Are home or mail-order allergy tests worth it?
Generally not. IgG food panels and hair analysis have no diagnostic value for allergy, and their positives lead to people cutting out foods they tolerate. Skin prick and specific IgE testing, chosen from a proper history, are the tests that mean something.
What is anaphylaxis, and what do I do?
A rapid, whole-body allergic reaction: swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, difficulty breathing, wheeze, faintness or collapse. Use an adrenaline auto-injector into the outer thigh if one is available, call emergency services, and lie flat with the legs raised. It is an emergency every time, even if it settles.
Why does this questionnaire sometimes refuse to give me a band?
Because the source document puts a score of 0 in two of its own bands at once. Choosing between them would mean making a decision the document did not make, for somebody sitting at exactly that score. So the page names the conflict instead.
One domain of a larger model.
This is one of three domains. The others — four allergy blood and skin tests and an age term — need results a clinician interprets, so the full score cannot be produced here.
Questionnaire source: Allergy Model.docx — questionnaire domain, negative and positive impact
Independent health information: NHS: Allergies. This source explains the condition; it does not validate the questionnaire as a diagnostic test.
Thyroid
Thyroid problems are common, easy to test for, and easy to miss — because the symptoms look like ordinary life.
Read the area
Ascites
Worth answering if your abdomen has been swelling, if you have a known liver condition, or if you are preparing for an appointment about either.
Open the check
Jaundice
Worth answering if you or someone you look after has noticed yellowing, dark urine or pale stools, and wants to arrive at an appointment with the history already straight.
Open the check
Crohn’s disease
Worth answering if you have had months of abdominal pain, diarrhoea, weight loss or fatigue and are trying to describe it accurately to a clinician.
Open the checkA questionnaire is a snapshot. A night is not.
This was your history, written down once. The bracelet is the part that keeps watching — sleep, resting heart rate, temperature and movement, night after night, in one place.
