Description:
Background
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease posing a significant burden on health-care resources and patients’ quality of life. It is a complex disease with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations and combinations of symptoms. AD affects up to 20% of children and up to 3% of adults; recent data show that its prevalence is still increasing, especially in low-income countries. AD is a common chronic pruritic skin disease seen in children. In the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), among 56 countries, the prevalence of AD in children varied significantly from 0.3% to 20.5% but shows consistent trend in increasing disease prevalence over time
Objectives
To determine the prevalence and associated factors of Atopic Dermatitis among patient attending RDTC at KCMC.
Methodology
This will be a cross-sectional study design through questionnaire interview by which patient with AD attending RDCT clinic at KCMC dermatology department patient, aged 3months to 12years will be interviewed. The data obtained from the study were entered into a pre-performed format on the computer and analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 22.0. Consistency of data will be maintained and stored in frequency tables, cross tabulations and charts. Relationship will be tasted at 95% confidence interval.
Results
A total of 93 study participants were enrolled in the study out of 125 which was estimated on the sample size. The prevalence of AD in children was found to be 9.19%, occurred in the median age of participants was 4 years ranging from 3months-12 years. 48(51.6%) patient were males which outnumbered the females in the study. Among 93 cases studied, 55(59.1%) had another associated conditions the rest had pure AD. The most associated factor according to the results is food allergy by which 32(34.4%) patient are associated with food allergy out of all 93 cases. 93 parents and guardians were assessed on basis of ability to describe the skin condition, awareness on mode of transmission and treatment. Among the total parent and guardians 72(77.4%) were able to describe briefly on skin condition and the remaining was not able to describe, 33(35.5%) were aware on the mode of transmission and 60(64.5%) were aware of treatment.
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Conclusion
This study and the previous studies done a KCMC suggest the condition is increasing in prevalent among children especially in children under 5 years of age. The study also describes the factors associated with AD in children, food allergy was found to be the common factor accompanied by the condition and other factors such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, allergic conjunctivitis and also family history as explained in the results. Also this study demonstrated that caretakers lack knowledge on causes and factors leading to AD and this knowledge on treatment measures is increasing among those who consulted a clinician at KCMC dermatology center.