192 Increased risk for wildfire smoke-associated atopic dermatitis and itch exacerbations in older adults

Aging affects the structure and function of human skin;as a result, aging skin, especially in people with existing skin disease, becomes less resilient to insults like air pollution. It has previously been shown that short-term exposure to wildfire smoke significantly exacerbated atopic dermatitis (AD), but not itch, in adults older than 18 years, and we hypothesized that adults particularly 65 years and older would be at greater risk for pollution-related skin exacerbations. We collected data on particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration and smoke plume density (SPD, ranging 0-3) in San Francisco and the number of outpatient dermatology visits for AD or itch at an academic medical center in the same city from October 2015-February 2019, which includes the time of the Camp Fire.