Atopic disease severity impacts quality of life in Japanese pediatric patients

Key takeaways:

• Children and adolescents with more severe atopic dermatitis had worse quality of life than those with mild disease.
• Hospitalizations, school absences and comorbidities all increased with disease severity.

Greater atopic dermatitis severity correlated with greater disease burden in children and adolescents in Japan, according to a study.

“Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin condition characterized by symmetrically distributed pruritic dermatitis that usually appears during infancy/childhood,” Yukihiro Ohya, MD, PhD, of the allergy center at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo, and colleagues wrote. “AD in childhood/adolescence is associated with atopic comorbidities and significant patient burden, including reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL).”

Pediatric populations across several countries were included in the real-world Epidemiology of Children with Atopic Dermatitis reporting on their Experience (EPI-CARE) study; however, this analysis focused on those in the study from Japan.

Patients aged 6 months to 17 years were included in the survey, which consisted of a 30-minute questionnaire to be completed by caregivers or patients. The survey included demographic data, severity evaluations and AD impact on disease burden.

Of 5,702 Japanese patients in the EPI-CARE database, 10.7% were diagnosed with AD, with 63.3% having clear or mild disease, 32.5% having moderate disease and 4.4% having severe disease.

In all age groups, those with higher disease severity had increased symptom severity, number of flares and comorbidities, the most common being hay fever, allergic rhinitis, asthma and seasonal allergies. Greater disease severity was also linked to increased health care utilization and more absences from school, in addition to worse HRQoL.

ED visits requiring hospitalization in the 12 months preceding the study were 2.9% in those with mild disease, 9.2% in those with moderate disease and 20.5% in those with severe disease.

School absences were approximately three times higher in those with moderate or severe disease compared with those with mild disease.

Quality of life, as measured by the HRQoL, was worse for all patients with more severe disease, but in children aged 6 to 12 years it was particularly worse, according to the study.

“This population-based study of Japanese pediatric patients aged 6 months to [younger than] 18 years describes the comprehensive AD burden of patients with moderate/severe forms of the disease and highlights the medical need for safe treatments offering long-term disease control,” the authors wrote.