BACKGROUND Potential links between eczema and obstructive pulmonary diseases have been postulated. Previously we have reported the prevalence of upper and lower respiratory diseases and the relation to environmental and socio-economic factors in a randomly selected adult population in southern Sweden using a postal questionnaire. In the present study we wanted to analyse the prevalence of eczem...

Methods Children with eczema at 2 years old (n=26) and their matched (for gender, mode of delivery and feeding in first 6 months) healthy controls (n=26) were selected from the placebo group of a cohort of at-risk infants participating in an randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial on the protective effects of supplemental probiotics (first 6 months) on eczema and allergies. Children wi...

BACKGROUND Atopic eczema in infants has increased in western societies. Environmental factors and the introduction of food may affect the risk of eczema. AIMS To investigate the prevalence of eczema among infants in western Sweden, describe patterns of food introduction and assess risk factors for eczema at 1 year of age. METHODS Data were obtained from a prospective, longitudinal cohort st...

A possible association between use of snus (Swedish moist snuff) and hand eczema was studied. 27,466 individuals responded to questions regarding hand eczema, tobacco use and other life style factors in a Swedish Public Health Survey in 2006, response rate 58%. Of these persons, 12.2% reported daily snus use (men 22.0%, women 4.3%), 15.5% daily smoking (men 14.4%, women 16.5%). Of snus users 7....

The aim was to assess the impact of eczema on health-related quality of life in the population-based birth cohort BAMSE with 2,756 pre-adolescent children. All answered the following questions on self-perceived health; "How are you feeling?", "How healthy do you consider yourself to be?" and "How happy are you with your life right now?". Children with ongoing eczema answered the "Children's Der...

OBJECTIVE Leave-on emollients form the mainstay of eczema treatment, but adherence is poor. We aimed to explore parents'/carers' views on effectiveness and acceptability of leave-on emollients for childhood eczema through secondary analysis of data from 2 qualitative data sets. SETTING Study 1 recruited through mail-out from 6 general practices in southern England. Study 2 recruited from a fe...