title: Prevalence of hand eczema in an adult Swedish population and the relationship to risk occupation and smoking.
abstract: Using a postal questionnaire the prevalence of hand eczema was determined in a general population of 11,798 individuals aged 20-77 years who were randomly drawn from the population records. The response rate was 78.1%. One-year prevalence of hand eczema among women varied between 1.9% and 10.8%, with the highest figure among those aged 30-39 years. The corresponding figures for men were 2.3% and 5.6%, with the highest figure among those aged 20-29 years. Lifetime prevalence varied between 5.7% and 16.7% among women and between 5.2% and 9.5% among men. Using multiple logistic regression analysis female sex (OR=1.91, 95% CI 1.47-2.47) and smoking (OR=1.35, 95% CI 1.04-1.75) were independent risk factors for reporting 1-year prevalence of hand eczema, whereas age (OR=0.99, 95% CI 0.97-0.99) was inversely related to the 1-year prevalence of hand eczema. Aggregated risk occupation or categorized occupation such as medical and nursing work, production or service were not significantly associated with 1-year prevalence of hand eczema.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine/Division of Geriatric Medicine, Lund University and Respiratory Medicine, Lund University Hospital, Sweden. peter.montnemery@smi.mas.lu.se
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Montnémery
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nihlén
authors.forename: Claes Göran
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Löfdahl
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nyberg
authors.forename: Ake
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Svensson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004485:Eczema / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology