Flares in childhood eczema.

Eczema is a major public health problem affecting children worldwide. Few studies have directly assessed triggers for disease flares. This paper presents evidence from a published systematic review and a prospective cohort study looking at flare factors in eczema. This systematic review suggested that foodstuffs in selected groups, dust exposure, unfamiliar pets, seasonal variation, stress, and irritants may be important in eczema flares. We performed a prospective cohort study that focused on environmental factors and identified associations between exposure to nylon clothing, dust, unfamiliar pets, sweating, shampoo, and eczema flares. Results from this study also demonstrated some new key findings. First, the effect of shampoo was found to increase in cold weather, and second, combinations of environmental factors were associated with disease exacerbation, supporting a multiple component disease model. This information is likely to be useful to families and may lead to the ability to reduce disease flares in the future.