Purpose: To describe secondary care health care resource utilization (HCRU) for children and adolescents with atopic dermatitis (AD).
Patients and methods: This UK chart review of patients with moderate-to-severe AD was conducted in four National Health Service hospitals. Cohorts were defined by age (children 6-11 years, adolescents 12-17) at first consultation. Eligible patients were selected consecutively, starting with the most recently consulting patient. At least 12 months' data were abstracted from medical records. Data were collected on HCRU, demographics/clinical characteristics, treatment, and patient-reported outcomes.
Results: Data were abstracted for 55 patients. Most patients (80%) had severe AD at first referral, a mean (SD) of 3.2 (10.7) patient-reported flare episodes/patient/year-of-observation, and 18.5 (16.7) tests/scans/procedures/patient/year. Mean (SD) observation duration was 3.6 (1.8) years. Patients had tried mean (SD) 7.9 (5.3) treatments/patient/year of observation. Topical corticosteroids (TCS; 24.5% of prescriptions) were most frequently prescribed. Mean (SD) use of emollients/moisturizers, TCS, systemic corticosteroids, and systemic immunosuppressants was 30.9 (21.3), 21.1 (23.4), 1.7 (8.3), and 7.8 (8.2) months. There was a mean (SD) of 5.3 (2.9) consultations/patient/year-of-observation; 116 (10.7%) for flare. Most hospitalizations (87.5%) were for children; the 8/55 (15%) hospitalized patients (mean 2.0 hospitalizations/patient during observation period) spent 6.2 (SD: 5.1) nights in hospital/hospitalization. Earliest mean (SD) Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index score was 15.3 (7.2); latest was 12.9 (7.5).
Conclusion: Children and adolescents with moderate-to-severe AD had a high HCRU burden and small changes in quality of life, indicating that current treatments may provide suboptimal AD control in most cases.
Keywords: England; HCRU; atopic dermatitis; eczema; flare; prescriptions.
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