title: [Actigraphy for the assessment of sleep quality in pediatric atopic dermatitis patients].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Good sleep is essential for the growth and the development of children. However, sleep is often impaired in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). It is important to assess the sleep quality in pediatric AD patients. For that purpose, we utilized actigraphy as an objective method for the assessment of sleep quality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Childhood patients with AD (16 cases) and 8 non-allergic volunteers were recruited. Actiwatch (AW-64) was attached to each subject's wrist for 11 days at maximum. Sleep parameters were calculated with Actiware and compared among various patient groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results demonstrate that sleep was significantly compromised in patients with AD, according to the severity. Subjective scoring of the sleep quality by parents showed limited correlation with actigraphy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Actigraphy is an objective and unobtrusive method to measure the sleep quality in childhood AD patients and can provide useful outcome in clinical trial.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Teikyo University. shige@med.teikyo-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shigetoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Hideharu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsubaki
authors.forename: Toshiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Itano
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Momomura
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Yukishige
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yanagawa
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology