Eczema Starting in Childhood Adds Burden in Adulthood

AMSTERDAM — There is a mountain of evidence that atopic dermatitis (AD) exerts a large negative impact on quality of life, but a unique study with data from more than 30,000 individuals showed that adults whose AD started in childhood carry a far greater psychological and social burden throughout their life relative to AD starting after childhood.

These data, drawn from the ambitious Scars of Life (SOL) project, “suggest that childhood AD persisting into adulthood is its own phenotype,” reported Jonathan I. Silverberg, MD, PhD, director of Clinical Research, Department of Dermatology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC.

One reasonable message from these data is that the failure to achieve adequate control of AD in children, whether by a late start of systemic agents or other reasons, results in a greater lifetime burden of disease when the burden beyond physical symptoms is measured, according to Silverberg.

More Than 30,000 From Five Continents Participated

In the SOL project, which was designed to analyze how the age of AD onset affects the severity of symptoms and quality of life, completed questionnaires were collected from 30,801 individuals in 27 countries on five continents. The questions, which elicited data to measure the burden of AD, were developed in association with several professional and patient associations with an interest in AD, including the National Eczema Association.

The SOL project has produced an enormous amount of data in four distinct groups, but Silverberg, speaking in a late breaking news session at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) 2024 Congress, focused on a comparison between the 2875 participants who had AD in childhood that has persisted into adulthood and the 7383 adults with adult-onset AD. Data from the other two subsets in SOL — AD in childhood but not in adulthood and no AD in either phase of life — are expected to fuel an extended series of publications.

In the two groups, baseline characteristics were similar with about 60% reporting moderate to severe symptoms and a median age of about 37 years. The proportion of women was 61% in both groups.

Using the PUSH-D questionnaire, which Silverberg described as a validated tool for gauging a sense of stigmatization, the greater burden of AD was remarkably consistent for those with childhood-onset AD vs adult-onset AD. With higher scores representing a greater sense of stigmatization, the differences in the overall score (23.0 vs 18.1; P < .0001) were highly significant as was every other domain evaluated.

For all five social behavior domains, such as avoiding contact in public and wariness of approaching people spontaneously, having AD onset in childhood persisting into adulthood produced significantly higher scores than having AD onset in adulthood, with no exceptions (P < .001 for all).

AD From Childhood Consistently Results in Worse Outcomes

Providing examples for some of the other 12 domains, Silverberg maintained that feelings of shame and psychological discomfort were always greater in adults with AD persistent since childhood vs AD starting in adulthood. The P values for these outcomes, such as experiencing bias at work or reporting a sense that others avoided them, were typically highly significant (P < .001).

Compared with those whose AD started in adulthood, “adults with atopic eczema that started during childhood have significantly more difficulties in their life, including occupational relationships, daily life, personal life, and partner or family relationships,” Silverberg reported.

He said that the data were controlled for multiple confounders, particularly greater severity of AD. He acknowledged that childhood might be considered a surrogate for more severe disease, but the data were controlled for this possibility.

Despite the fact that there are “thousands of studies across all age groups showing the burden of AD,” Silverberg considers these data to be unique by emphasizing the burden of chronicity rather than the impact of AD in any single moment in time.

For those with chronic AD from childhood, “the effect is not just on physical health but a deep negative influence on psychological and social aspects of life,” Silverberg said. He suggested that the independent effects of chronicity might be worth studying across other dermatologic diseases.

“Regulatory agencies focus on what you can do in that moment of time, losing the bigger picture of how patients are affected chronically,” he said, suggesting that this is an area of clinical research that should be further explored.

What the data further suggest “is that the earlier we intervene, the more likely patients will do better long-term,” he added.

Data Provide Evidence of Systemic Therapy in Kids

For Gudrun Ratzinger, MD, of the Department of Dermatology and Venerology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, these are valuable data.

“When I prescribe systemic therapies to children, I often get resistance from the healthcare system and even other colleagues,” said Ratzinger, who was asked to comment on the results. “We are at a teaching hospital, but I often find that when patients return to their home physician, the systemic therapies are stopped.”

In her own practice, she believes the most effective therapies should be introduced in children and adults when complete control is not achieved on first-line drugs. “These data are very helpful for me in in explaining to others the importance of effective treatment of atopic dermatitis in children,” she said.

Silverberg reported financial relationships with more than 40 pharmaceutical companies including those that make drugs for AD. Ratzinger reported financial relationships with AbbVie, Almirall, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Leo Pharma, Novartis, Pelpharma, Pfizer, and UCB.

Ted Bosworth is a medical journalist based in New York City.