A nationwide, register-based cohort study found that adults with atopic dermatitis (AD) have an increased risk of systemic infection.
Researchers sought to examine whether Danish adults with AD have an increased risk of developing systemic infections in a register-based cohort study. Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratio (HR) or adjusted HR (aHR) with 95% CI. In total, the study included 10,602 adults with AD with a median age of 29.8 years (range, 22.6-44.8 years) and 106,020 reference individuals.
Overall incidence rate of systemic infetions per 10,000 person-years was 180.6 (95% CI, 172.6-189.0) among adults with AD compared with 120.4 (95% CI, 118.3-122.5) among reference adults. An association between AD and systemic infection in the cohort was observed for musculoskeletal (aHR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.42-2.31), heart (aHR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.21-2.53), and respiratory infections. In particular, the respiratory infections included upper (aHR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.15-1.73) and lower (aHR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.10-1.33) tract infections. An increased risk of sepsis (aHR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.01-1.44) and skin infections (aHR, 2.30; 95% CI, 2.01-2.62) was also found.
While a large-scale study, the researchers noted that the results should not be generalized to adults with mild AD treated outside of the hospital system.
“We found an increased risk of systemic infections among adults with hospital-managed AD,” they concluded.
Reference
Droitcourt C, Vittrup I, Kerbrat S, Egeberg A, Thyssen TP. Risk of systemic infections in adults with atopic dermatitis: a nationwide cohort study. J Am Acad Dermatol. Published August 1, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2020.07.111
