Emollients and topical glucocorticoids in adolescents with eczema

Eczema, also called atopic eczema, is a common skin disease among children. When you have eczema you usually have dry skin often with itchy rashes. The disease affects about 10‐30 % of all children worldwide. In Sweden, 20% of all children have had or have eczema before the age of 5 years. The disease is less common with age and affects 2‐10 % of all adults. Eczema should be treated with emollients (moisturisers) for the dry skin and cortisone cream on the itchy rash. The knowledge about adolescents with eczema is sparse. This study from Sweden, aimed to find out how adolescents with eczema treat themselves with emollient and cortisone cream, if boys and girls treat themselves differently, if the severity of eczema affects treatment behavior and how much cortisone cream they had dispensed from the pharmacy during the last year. The author used data from 16‐year‐old adolescents who answered questions about eczema and its treatment and who attended a clinical examination. The main finding shows that almost all adolescents used emollients, but only half used cortisone cream, and there were no differences between how boys and girls treated themselves. Symptoms of more severe eczema did not increase the likelihood of using cortisone. Only one out of four with moderate to very severe eczema had a potent cortisone cream dispensed from the pharmacy the preceding year. The authors therefore concluded that many adolescents with eczema are undertreated or completely untreated.