The Lothian Atopic Dermatitis Study was designed to quantify the economic burden of atopic dermatitis and to measure the impact on the quality of life of patients with this common condition. The study population was a semi-rural general practice of 9,786. A sampling scheme was devised to identify as many as possible of those in the practice with atopic dermatitis. One-year period prevalences were calculated by standard methods for age groups < 2, 2-11, 12-15, 16-24, 25-40, 41+. Expense, estimated over a 2 month period, was attributed to the patient, health service or society according to the source. One unpublished quality of life measure was used for children and two well-validated measures, the Dermatology Life Quality Index and the Patient Generated Index, were competed by adults. The one year period prevalences were 9.8% for the under 2's, 8.1% age 2-11, 2.2% age 12-15, 2.1% age 16-24, 2.0% age 25-40 and 0.2% over 40's. This pattern shows clearly the sharp decline in the prevalence of atopic dermatitis during teenage and adult years. The largest source of cost to patients was clothing and laundry, and the mean annual cost to patients was £153. Treatments accounted for the largest source of expenditure by the health service giving a mean cost per patient of £97. There were 58 lost working days and 17 lost school days by all patients as a result of atopic dermatitis. If these results were extrapolated to the U.K. population they would represent a total annual expenditure of £172m by patients, £125m by the health service and £168m by society. This adds up to £465m per annum or a per capita cost of £7.38 per annum. The quality of life measures reflected the range of severity of atopic dermatitis in the community. The Dermatology Life Quality Index was not specific for atopic dermatitis but correlated significantly with the Patient Generated Index. Clinical studies are necessary to characterise adult atopic dermatitis and emphasise the pressure from the heavy economic burden and impaired life quality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:652377 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Herd, Robert M. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/29155 |
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