Eczema (atopic dermatitis) is a skin condition that causes dry, itchy and sore skin. It affects up to 20% of children in the UK, the US and Europe. For some children with eczema, symptoms improve and resolve as they get older, but in others the symptoms can persist throughout childhood and severely impact quality of life.
There is an urgent need to better understand different patterns of childhood eczema and to identify factors linked to resolution or persistence of symptoms. Children at risk of having persistent or severe eczema can then be identified at an earlier age, when interventions, such as systemic treatment with new biologics, may be more effective.
There have been several studies to define subtypes of eczema, and to try to identify which early life factors are associated with each subtype. However, most research to date has focussed on children of European ancestry in high-income countries (HICs) such as the US, UK and other European countries. This means that the existing research findings in this area cannot necessarily be generalised to non-European children in HICs, or to children in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). This has important implications in terms of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of eczema in these populations.
The focus of the current proposal is therefore on identifying eczema subtypes (phenotypes) and assessing possible risk factors for the various subtypes in four birth cohorts in diverse settings; the Born in Bradford (BiB) study and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the UK, the Ecuador Life study (ECUAVIDA) in Ecuador, and the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study (EMaBS) in Uganda.