Atopic dermatitis and skin disease
Adult eczema prevalence and associations with asthma and other health and demographic factors: A US population–based study

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Background

Little is known about the epidemiology of eczema in adults. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of and associations with adult eczema in the United States.

Methods

We used the 2010 National Health Interview Survey from a nationally representative sample of 27,157 adults age 18 to 85 years.

Results

Overall, the 1-year prevalence of eczema was 10.2% (95% CI, 9.7% to 10.6%). The 1-year prevalence of eczema with asthma and/or hay fever was 3.2% (95% CI, 2.8% to 3.3%). Adult eczema was associated with higher prevalence of asthma (P < .001, Rao-Scott χ2 test), more asthma attacks in the past year (P < .001), and more persistent asthma (P = .02). In multivariate models eczema prevalence was significantly higher in older participants; female subjects; those with Hispanic ethnicity, US birthplace, and higher level of household education; and those currently working (all P ≤ .02, logistic regression).

Conclusions

This study provides US population–based estimates of eczema prevalence and asthma associations in adults. The results suggest multiple demographic and socioeconomic influences on the US prevalence of adult eczema.

Section snippets

NHIS

The 2010 NHIS was collected by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States. The questionnaire included a separate core module with questions to estimate the prevalence of various adult health issues. The survey was administered in person to selected households by approximately 400 trained interviewers of the Bureau of the

Prevalence of eczema and atopic disease

Data were collected on a total of 27,157 adults including sufficient representation of all age, sex, and racial/ethnic groups. Overall, the US prevalence of eczema in adults was 10.2% (95% CI, 9.7% to 10.6%; Fig 1). In particular, 3.2% (95% CI, 2.9% to 3.4%) of the adult population had EAH, as defined by a 1-year history of eczema with either ever having a history of asthma, 1-year history of hay fever, or both, whereas 0.5% (95% CI, 0.4% to 0.6%) had eczema, asthma, and hay fever.

Overall, the

Discussion

By using a population-based approach, the present study found a 10.2% 1-year prevalence of eczema and 3.2% prevalence of AD in US adults. There are no recent US population–based studies of adult eczema per se to compare or contrast with the present study. Hanifin and Reed6 performed a questionnaire-based study of eczema prevalence in a sample of 116,202 subjects in 42,249 US households. They found that 10.7% and 6% had empirically defined eczema and AD, respectively. However, that study’s

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    Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.

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