Prevalence of atopic dermatitis in children in Iran

ABSTRACT

Atopic dermatitis is a very common skin disease specially in childhood. Recently, a new set of six criteria has been proposed for the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis. We used these criteria to determine the prevalence of atopic dermatitis in children younger than twelve years old attending a general pediatric clinic. We also studied the effect of the type of feeding in the first six months of life on the prevalence of this disease. The point prevalence of atopic dermatitis was 17.6% in this study. It was much higher in children younger than 4 years [21.2%] and it was slightly higher in boys [20% vs 15.3%]. Breast-feeding in early life showed a protective effect on the subsequent development of atopic dermatitis