title: Prevalence of Atopic Dermatitis in Korean Children Based on Data From the 2008-2011 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
abstract: Population-based studies of atopic dermatitis (AD) in Korean children are lacking. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence, geographic distribution, and risk factors of AD in the Korean pediatric population. We examined AD prevalence using data from the 2008-2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), which was a cross-sectional survey of 8,947 children up to age 18 throughout the country. Overall, 13.50% of children reported a diagnosis of AD. The age-standardized prevalence ranged from 9.13% to 17.67% between cities and provinces, with the highest prevalence-observed in many of the larger cities at low latitudes, as well as Jeju-do. After adjusting for confounders, high economic status was found to be a significant factor for predicting increased prevalence of AD, with an odds ratio of 1.35 (95% confidence interval of 1.02-1.79, P=0.0034). Urban living (odds ratio 1.24, 95% confidence interval of 1.00-1.53, P=0.0526) was also associated with a higher prevalence of AD. In this first large scale, nationwide study in Korean children, we found that the overall prevalence of AD depends on age, household income, and geographic distribution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Ji Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Do
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Min
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Gyu
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. yymmpark6301@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Young Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Park
keywords: Atopic dermatitis; Korean; child; prevalence