Recent Trends in the Incidence and Prevalence of Atopic Dermatitis in the United States: Eliciting Differences by Age and Sex

OBJECTIVES: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a highly prevalent condition in the US, affecting over 9.6 million children and 16.5 million adults. Past studies show that adult women have higher prevalence of AD than adult males. The objective of this study is to examine the most recent trend in the prevalence and incidence of AD, and differences by age and sex.

METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of AD (2019-2022) were identified from IQVIA PharMetrics Plus adjudicated claims database. Incidence and prevalence were computed for the overall cohort as well as annually, stratified by age and sex.

RESULTS: Of the 1,768,887 AD patients, 56.74% were women, and 39.51% were aged ≤9 years. Period prevalence of AD was 2,819.15 per 100,000 persons (95% CI: 2,815.05- 2,823.25), with annual prevalence increasing from 1,795.62 (CI:1,791.71-1,799.53) in 2019 to 3,292.32 in 2022 (CI:3,286.71-3,297.93) per 100,000 persons. The overall incidence (proportion) decreased from 880.46 (CI: 877.71-883.23) in 2019 to 744.61 (CI:742.01-747.22) in 2020 and then increasing to 889.90 (CI: 886.91-892.89) per 100,000 in 2022. Incidence and prevalence of diagnosed AD increased in each age group with highest increase in prevalence among children aged <9 years. Women experienced a sharper increase in prevalence (1,955.28 [2019] to 3,614.74 [2022] per 100,000) compared to men (1,624.66 [2019] to 2,946.22 [2022] per 100,000). Upon stratification by age and sex, incidence and prevalence were higher among male children (0-9 years) and elderly men (80+ years) than females in the same age groups.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the increase in incidence and prevalence of AD overall and among all age groups from 2019 to 2022, despite a dip in incidence in 2020. While our findings regarding overall prevalence by age and sex align with existing evidence, in contrast to past trends, we demonstrate that male children and elderly men have higher proportions of diagnosed AD.