Sunghee Lee, MD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Ju-Hee Seo, MD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul, South Korea
Hyun-Ju Cho, MD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Young-Ho Kim, MD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Eun Lee, MD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Go-Hun Seo
,
1Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Hye Lim Shin, MS
,
Asan Institute for Life Sciences, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, South Korea
Song-I Yang
,
Department of Pediatrics, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, South Korea
Mina Ha
,
Department of Preventive Medicine, Dankook University College of Medicine, Cheonan, South Korea
Eunae Burm
,
Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Dankook University, Cheonan, South Korea
Kee-Jae Lee
,
Department of Information Statistics, College of Natural Science, Korean National Open University, Seoul, South Korea
Hwan-Cheol Kim
,
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, South Korea
Sinye Lim
,
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, South Korea
Hee-Tae Kang
,
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Wonju Severance Christian’s Hospital, Yonsei University, Wonju, South Korea
Mia Son
,
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, South Korea
Soo-Young Kim
,
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Eulji University, Daejeon, South Korea
Hae-Kwan Cheong
,
Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea
Yu-Mi Kim
,
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Dong-a University, Busan, South Korea
Gyung-Jae Oh
,
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, South Korea
Joon Sakong
,
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, South Korea
Chul-Gab Lee
,
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea
Sue Jin Kim
,
Division of Advanced Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, South Korea
Yong-Wook Baek
,
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Division of Environmental Health, National Institute of Environment, Incheon, South Korea
Soo-Jong Hong, MD, PhD
,
Department of Pediatrics, Childhood Asthma Atopy Center, Environmental Health Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
Purpose: Atopic dermatitis (AD) has increased in worldwide and nationwide. However, we do not have well designed randomized national epidemiologic studies, but only some selected data about prevalence of AD. We investigated the prevalence of AD and risk factors in nationwide random children and adolescents of Korea.
Methods: We conducted a questionnaires survey with 1,820 children, aged 6 to 19 years old, nationwide in Korea from 2012 to 2013. The subjects were selected by a stratifying sampling method by school grade and five regions. The population was composed of 914 elementary school, 445 middle school, and 461 high school students. Current AD was defined as having recent AD symptoms within 12 months and diagnosed as AD from physicians ever. Atopic sensitization was described by skin prick test for 18 common allergens.
Results:The prevalence of current AD and recent AD treatment within 12 months in elementary school, middle school, and high school was 18.8%, 14.6%, and 13.4%, and 12.3%, 8.6%, and 9.5%, respectively. Risk factors, based on multivariate analysis, for current AD from merged data included household pet keeping (aOR, 1.35; 95% CI, 0.95-1.89) as well as parental allergic disease (aOR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.44-2.44), mold exposure during infancy (aOR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.06-1.89), recent mold exposure within 12 months (aOR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.16-2.03), and atopic sensitization (aOR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.12-1.93).
Conclusion: The nationwide prevalence of current AD in elementary school, middle school, and high school students were 18.8%, 14.6%, and 13.4%, respectively. The risk factors for current AD included parental allergic disease, mold exposure during infancy, recent mold exposure within 12 months, atopic sensitization, and household pet keeping.
Funding sources: This study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Research(NIER)
