Relationship between Health Status and Life Styles and Atopic Dermatitis in Adolescents

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim was to explore the relationship between health status/life style and prevalence of atopic dermatitis in adolescents. METHODS: Data from 1,743 adolescents (aged 13 to 18 years) derived from the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were analyzed using binary logistic regression and the classification and regression tree (CART) model. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of atopic dermatitis was 10.3%. Third quartile income class (OR=2.19, 95% CI=1.20-4.00), fair and unhealthy self-rated health (OR=1.49, 95% CI=1.06-2.11; OR= 2.73, 95% CI=1.64-4.55), past or current smoker (OR=0.41, 95% CI=0.20-0.85; OR=0.44, 95% CI=0.21-0.92), and more than average stress (OR=1.43, 95% CI=1.03-1.99) were related with increased prevalence of atopic dermatitis. The high prevalence risk groups for atopic dermatitis were adolescents who perceived themselves to be healthy on self-rated health and had more than average stress and those who perceived themselves to be unhealthy and who never smoked. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that health status, smoking, and stress are associated with a prevalence risk for adolescent atopic dermatitis in different degrees. Therefore, for control of atopic dermatitis, various interventions for smoking and stress need to be reinforced for the high prevalence atopic dermatitis groups.