Eczema rates fall among Irish teens

[Posted: Wed 09/01/2008]

The number of Irish teenagers developing the skin condition eczema has fallen, major new research has shown.

Eczema is a group of skin complaints that can occur anywhere on the body. An estimated one in 10 people are affected at some point in their lives and symptoms can include an itchy, scaly red rash.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham tracked the number of cases of childhood eczema across the globe. They discovered major changes in the prevalence of the condition over the last five to 10 years and believe that environmental factors may have a key role in these changes.

As part of the study, they looked at over 300,000 children aged 13-14 in 55 countries and almost 190,000 children aged six and seven in 35 countries.

The researchers found that cases of eczema among 13 and 14-year-olds had levelled off, with some countries even experiencing a decrease. The largest decreases were seen in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Sweden and New Zealand. According to lead researcher, Professor Hywel Williams, this provides some reassurance that an allergic disease epidemic 'is not increasing inexorably throughout the world'.

However Prof Williams expressed concern about the increasing number of eczema cases among teenagers in developing countries, such as Mexico, Chile, Kenya and Algeria. He warned that allergic disease might replace infectious disease as a major cause of ill health in cities undergoing rapid demographic changes in such countries.

Prof Williams believes that environmental factors could be key to the prevalence of eczema because it is 'highly unlikely' that genetic factors would change in such a short time.

"This is the first time we have been able to have a glimpse of what has been happening to eczema symptoms across the world using standardised methods. The results suggest that environmental factors are key to the expression of eczema. If only we could identify those factors so that we could prevent eczema in those countries experiencing significant increases", he said.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

For more information on eczema, see our Eczema Clinic at http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/eczema/