14 Dec Adults with Eczema Often Sleep Impaired, Miss Work Days
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Jonathan L. Silverberg MD PhD MPH
Assistant Professor in Dermatology, Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine
Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Silverberg: Chronic itch related to childhood eczema has been shown to cause worsened sleep quality with shorter sleep duration, more frequent and prolonged awakening, and overall lower sleep efficiency. However, little is known about the sleep disturbances that occur in adults with eczema.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Silverberg: Among adults with eczema, 32.8% reported fatigue (equivalent to 5,580,472 people in the US population), 26.0% reported regular daytime sleepiness (~4,430,186 people) and 34.4% reported insomnia (~5,847,404 people). In multivariate models that controlled for other atopic disorders, socio-demographics and BMI, eczema was still associated with 2-3 fold higher odds of fatigue, regular daytime sleepiness and regular insomnia. Adults with eczema were twice as likely to report having only fair or poor overall health status. However, those with eczema and sleep disturbances had 6-9 fold higher odds of fair or poor health status. Similarly, adults with eczema and sleep disturbances had even more missed workdays, days in bed and doctor visits than those with eczema alone.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Silverberg: More research is needed to understand the best available treatments and develop new and improved treatments for the itch and sleep disturbances occur in adult eczema.
Citation:
Sleep Disturbances in Adults with Eczema Are Associated with Impaired Overall Health: A US Population-Based Study.
Silverberg JI1, Garg NK2, Paller AS3, Fishbein AB4, Zee PC5.
J Invest Dermatol. 2014 Aug 31. doi: 10.1038/jid.2014.325. [Epub ahead of print]
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Last Updated on December 14, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD