Lifetime Increased Risk of Adult Onset Atopic Dermatitis in Adolescent and Adult Patients with Food Allergy

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2017-01, Vol.18 (1), p.42-42
• Main Authors: Yu, Hsu-Sheng, Tu, Hung-Pin, Hong, Chien-Hui, Lee, Chih-Hung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Adults; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anaphylaxis; Atopic dermatitis; Case-Control Studies; Dermatitis; Dermatitis, Atopic - epidemiology; Eczema; Female; Food allergies; Food Hypersensitivity - epidemiology; Humans; Itching; Labeling; Male; Middle Aged; Patients; Peanuts; Quality of life; Risk
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms18010042

Food allergy can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis. Atopic dermatitis (AD) causes intense itching and impaired quality of life. Previous studies have shown that patients with classical early-onset AD tend to develop food allergy and that 10% of adults with food allergies have concomitant AD. However, it is not known whether late-onset food allergy leads to adult-onset AD, a recently recognized disease entity. Using an initial cohort of one-million subjects, this study retrospectively followed-up 2851 patients with food allergy (age > 12 years) for 14 years and compared them with 11,404 matched controls. While 2.8% (81) of the 2851 food allergy patients developed AD, only 2.0% (227) of the 11,404 controls developed AD. Multivariate regression analysis showed that food allergy patients were more likely to develop AD (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.49, < 0.0001). Controls had a 1.99% risk of developing AD, while food allergy patients had a significantly higher risk (7.18% and 3.46% for patients with ≥3 and