Atopic dermatitis (eczema) in US female nurses: lifestyle risk factors and atopic comorbidities

Funding sources: The study was supported in part by the Department of Dermatology, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and a Nurses’ Health Study II grant (UM1 CA176726). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Conflicts of interest: none declared. Dear Editor, Atopic dermatitis (AD), or eczema, has been associated with a number of modifiable risk factors, particularly obesity.1 2 Data on other associations, including physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking, are sparse. We examined the association between lifestyle risk factors and AD and between AD and atopic comorbidities using a cross‐sectional analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII), a cohort of female registered nurses in the U.S.A. In 2009, participants were asked whether they ‘ever had clinician‐diagnosed eczema (atopic dermatitis)’, ‘… hay fever’ or ‘… food allergies’. Participants who answered ‘yes’ to ‘eczema (atopic dermatitis)’ were defined as cases of lifetime AD. Biennially from 1989, participants were asked about lifestyle characteristics and clinician‐diagnosed asthma. In our analysis, we used data on body weight, physical activity, alcohol intake and smoking, collected in 2009. Those who reported a diagnosis of asthma at or before the 2009 questionnaire were defined as asthma cases. Race/ethnicity was reported in 1989. Information on family history of asthma was collected in 2001.