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Research Article: Atopic Dermatitis in Italian Pre-School Children: Literature Review of Epidemiological Data with a Focus on Disease Prevalence and Severity

Date Published: 2023-09-29

Abstract:
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common diseases worldwide. Severe AD has a major impact on the quality of life of patients. We performed a systematic literature review on the epidemiology of AD in Italian pre-school children (age 0–5 years) and we assessed the available data on the severity of AD. In August 2022, we performed a bibliographic search using PubMed/Medline and EMBASE. We identified 10 studies with Italian data on the prevalence and/or incidence of AD in pre-school children. The period (12 months) prevalence of AD varied widely across studies, ranging between 4.0% and 42.2%, with median estimates of 14.3% among all studies and 11.8% among studies from 2010 onwards. Applied to the Italian population, this leads to a prevalence of 309,000–375,000 pre-school AD cases. Only one study computed the incidence of AD, reporting rates of 9 cases per 100 person-years in children aged 0–1 year, and 2.5 cases per 100 person-years in children aged 1–4 years. Severity data from Italy were also reviewed, across three identified three studies. A point estimate found 8.4% of cases were considered severe in one study based on the Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (POEM), with an overall range of 7.8–11% across different Italian studies and according to various severity score types.

Introduction:
Atopic dermatitis (AD) ranks 15th among the most common non-fatal diseases according to a recent report from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study [1]. In high-income countries, AD is estimated to affect one out of five to six children [2], with the youngest group of pre-school children (6 months to 5 years) showing the highest prevalence. In fact, the onset of AD typically occurs during the first few months of life and approximately 70% of AD cases present the first symptoms before 5 years of age [3,4]. The…

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