Yin-Chun Chen1,2, Ching-Shuang Wu3, Yi-Wei Lu1, Wan-Chen Li1, Ying-Chin Ko4, Hsin-Su Yu1, Gwo-Shing Chen1and Cheng-Che E. Lan1,2
Departments of Dermatology, 1Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, and 2Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, 3Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, and 4Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan. E-mail: ec_lan@hotmail.com
Accepted Dec 19, 2012; Epub ahead of print Mar 26, 2013
Chronic hand eczema represents more than 90% of occupational skin diseases and has serious consequences, including prolonged sick leave, increased health costs, and reduced quality of life (QoL) (1–4). Wet work, in particular, is an important risk factor for the development of hand eczema (1, 3, 4). Hospital nurses are prone to develop hand eczema due to the nature of their job, which entails repetitive hand hygiene (5). Atopic dermatitis (AD) has been recognized as the most important risk factor for development of hand eczema among nursing staff (5). However, a population-based twin study has suggested that genetic factors other than AD contribute to the development of hand eczema (6), and it has been shown that hand eczema with onset at a young age portends unfavourable prognosis regardless of atopic status (7). Therefore, AD and non-atopic hand eczema represent distinct disorders. Previous studies have demonstrated that impairment of QoL is a strong predictor of prolonged sick leave in patients with occupational dermatitis (8). Intriguingly, QoL scores do not always correlate with the clinical severity of skin conditions including hand eczema, acne and ichthyosis (5, 9, 10). Therefore, QoL scores, rather than clinical signs, may be a better predictor for disease burden in certain skin diseases, such as hand eczema. The objective of this study is to determine the potential differences between AD and non-atopic hand eczema in terms of QoL scores among a university hospital nursing population in Taiwan.
No comments:
Post a Comment