Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin condition characterized by pruritic, eczematous lesions. Recent evidence suggests that AD may be a systemic disorder, implying that management of this disease extends beyond merely controlling symptoms associated with AD. Even though this disease is highly prevalent in children and patients typically present with mild-to-moderate symptoms, the disease burden is not well established.
Methods: A large, retrospective cohort study of Swedish population data was conducted to compare the clinical burden in terms of healthcare resource use and direct medical costs for pediatric mild-to-moderate (pM2M) AD patients (≤ 14 years of age, N = 87,721) with matched controls. The burden of a severe AD cohort was also evaluated. Severity of AD was defined by treatment usage and systemic treatment was used as a proxy for severe AD. A robust approach was used by including any type of secondary care visits known to be more common in AD patients than in the general population; however, data for primary care visits were not available.
Results: For healthcare resource use, the incidence rate ratio (pM2M AD versus reference cohort) of secondary care visits ranged from 1.56 to 2.35 during each of 5 years after AD onset (all p < 0.001), with largest differences seen in years 1-2. The average direct medical cost (SD) was €1111 (3416) and €524 (2446) in the pM2M AD and reference cohorts, respectively. The corresponding estimate in the severe AD cohort was €1906 (7067). Including all secondary care visits and pharmacy-dispensed medications, the pM2M AD cohort was shown to have an additional €118.9 million in direct medical costs over 5 years compared with the reference cohort.
Conclusions: This study shows significant clinical and economic burden of pM2M AD with important secondary care resource utilization, suggesting a need for further research to increase treatment options and improve the management of these patients.
Keywords: Atopic dermatitis; Epidemiology; Pediatrics; Public health research.