Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic recurrent, pruritic, inflammatory skin disease that is more common and genetically related to asthma and allergic rhinitis. AD is mainly manifested as infantile facial eczema in infancy, commonly known as "milk ringworm"; young children often have erosions or hypertrophic rashes on the extensor side of the neck and the flexion of the elbow and knee, commonly known as "four curved winds". About 60% of AD patients do not heal after puberty and develop adult eczema or generalized neurodermatitis that lasts for life. In recent years, studies on the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis have found that AD patients not only have skin barrier function abnormalities in the lesion site, but also have skin barrier function defects in normal skin, which are manifested as significant dry skin, desquamation, and increased water loss in the epidermis; at the same time, studies have shown that the skin barrier function defects in AD patients increase the sensitivity of skin to allergic factors in the external environment, which is closely related to the recurrence of diseases and the severity of the disease.
The incidence of preschool AD in developed Western countries is about 15% to 20% [1]. In developed countries, due to changes in the environment and people's living habits, allergens and irritants change and increase, and with the increase in industrialization, rural populations gradually turn to cities, resulting in a gradual increase in the incidence of AD in developed countries. The incidence of AD in China is 0.69% at school age and 3.07% in preschool age[2]. AD is characterized by severe itching, often with asthma, allergic rhinitis, and about 70% of patients with AD have a family history of genetic allergies. 80 to 90 percent of patients with AD develop disease before the age of seven years, and prevalence in children ranges from 10 to 20 percent [3]. It should be noted that about 35% to 60% of children with AD can suffer from asthma, allergic rhinitis and other diseases at the same time with age, and AD is the earliest pathogenesis link in this group of allergic diseases with the same genetic background (Atopic March), and studies have shown that early blocking of allergic inflammation of the skin will help prevent the development of asthma.
Studies have shown that the three most affected areas of children with AD are skin itching, scratching the skin, emotional effects, and sleep problems. AD children with obvious itching and accompanied by the characteristics of night aggravation, affecting the sleep of infants and young children, poor sleep at night will make children's attention, memory, creativity and motor skills damaged, but also cause a series of emotional behavior problems, such as aggressive, hyperactivity, poor self-control, inattention, irritability, etc., directly affecting children's physical and intellectual development at the same time will also seriously affect the quality of life of children; into the learning stage, due to itching and other reasons can not concentrate, there is a decline in grades, boredom and other emotions Some children will also be ridiculed for skin reasons, resulting in symptoms such as inferiority and autism. Due to the lack of understanding of diseases and drugs by children and parents, irregular medications, low compliance, and unsatisfactory disease control, a child with AD will affect the quality of life of the entire family and cause pressure on the family. Therefore, while attaching importance to the incidence of AD, we should strengthen the education of children and their families with AD on disease knowledge and daily health guidance, and improve the quality of daily life.
[1] Laughter D, Istvan JA, Tofte SJ, et al. The prevalence of atopic dermatitis in Oregon schoolchildren [J]. J Am Acad Dermatol, 2000, 43(4): 649-655.
[2] Yang YC, Cheng YW, Lai CS, et al. Prevalence of childhood acne, ephelides, warts, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, alopecia areata and keloid in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan: a community-based clinical survey [J]. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol, 2007, 21(5): 643-649.
[3] Kemp A S．Atopic eczema：its social and financial costs[J]．J Paediatr Child Health．1999，35(3)： 229-231．
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