Background: Exposure to air pollution aggravates symptoms of atopic dermatitis (AD) in children in the population studies. Variability in individual patient's response from individual susceptibility is needed to be explored.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate spectrum of individual variability in the associations between AD symptoms and air quality.
Methods: We enrolled 89 children aged 0-6 years with AD (22 890 person-days). Daily manifestation of symptoms was recorded for an average of 257 days (range 100-499). Both an individual analysis using logistic regression models and an overall analysis using a generalized estimating equation were performed.
Results: The odds ratios of an individual ranged 0.24-8.11 for particulate matter <10 μm in diameter (PM10 ), 0.09-101.92 for nitrogen oxide (NO2 ), 0.03-44.00 for ozone (O3 ), 0.11-58.30 for sulfur dioxide (SO2 ), 0.00-15.83 for carbon monoxide (CO), 0.00-39 446.94 for temperature, and 0.03-5.18 for relative humidity, demonstrating a wide individual variability. In the overall analysis, PM10 , NO2 , SO2 , and CO had a significantly positive association, whereas temperature and relative humidity were negatively associated with AD symptoms. Air pollution was responsible for aggravation of symptoms from 24.7% (O3 ) to 39.3% (SO2 ) of AD children. Overall, 71.9% of the AD children responded to at least one or more air pollution and weather variable.
Conclusion: Responses of AD children to air pollution and weather variable were considerably variable among individuals. An individualized model would be useful to forecast and manage AD symptoms in patients.
Keywords: air quality; atopic dermatitis; epidemiology; forecast; individualized model; susceptibility; time series data analysis; weather.
© 2018 EAACI and John Wiley and Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.