Introduction
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory
skin diseases characterized by recurrent pruritic eczematous
lesions.1 AD has long been recognized as a disease in
children, with high prevalence rates up to 25%.2Recently, increasing evidence has suggested that AD also presents in
adults, with prevalence rates estimated at approximately 2.1% to 4.9%
worldwide and that both persistent child- and adult-onset forms have
been observed.3-5
The latest epidemiological studies have shown that the prevalence of AD
in industrialized countries has increased since early
2000’s.3,6-9 This increase prevalence inflicts a
significant disease burden on patients and healthcare systems.
Specifically, the prevalence of AD in China, a country with more than
1.4 billion people, is showing an increasing trend across different age
groups over the past three decades.10-13 Nevertheless,
few studies have reported the current state, clinical features, and
treatment of AD in China. A majority of previous studies have focused on
paediatric AD, with a limited number of reports focusing on adults.
Despite the differences in clinical manifestations and demographic
characteristics between children and adults, a thorough analysis of
patients with AD across all age groups is
lacking.6,14,15 Therefore, there is a heightened
interest in the comprehensive identification of real-world data on
clinical characteristics, aggravating factors, and comorbidities of AD
in patients from different age groups across China. This study is based
on data extracted from national registry of the China Type II
Inflammatory Skin Disease Clinical Research and Standardized Diagnosis
and Treatment Project. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
national study with a large sample size on the disease severity, risk
factors, and comorbidity in patients with AD
in China. We can utilize these
data to better guide clinicians in designing treatment plans while
actively monitoring changes and trends in clinical characteristics and
patient management of AD. In the future, this study could serve as a
baseline for large-scale control studies.