OBJECTIVES: To characterize atopic dermatitis (AD) patients treated in Colombia from the individual records of the provision of health services (RIPS) and drugs prescriptions (Mipres) in 2019.

METHODS: Cross-sectional study based on national databases. The International Classification Diseases 10^th version (ICD-10) L208 and L209 were used to identify the patients diagnosed with AD. The analyzed variables were gender, age, geographic localization and supply of approved tacrolimus and dupilumab of user of Health Care System (HCS) were abstracted from sources. The databases used were RIPS and Mipres. The descriptive statistical analysis was performed using mean and median as central tendency, and standard deviations standard (SD) and interquartile range (IQR) as variability measures.

RESULTS: From the RIPS 297,237 patients were identified with AD using ICD-10 codes, most of them were females (58.3%), with a mean age of 24.5 (SD 8.6). The prevalence of AD for all ages had a median 0.42% IQR (0.4%-0.6%); infancy (0-4 years) was 1.60% IQR (1.24%-1.94%); childhood (5-12 years) was 0.73% IQR (0.5%–1.0%); adolescence (12-18 years) was 0.38% IQR (0.23%-0.54%); and adults (older 18 years) was 0.12% IQR (0.10%-0.17%). There is a variability in the frequency of health care attention in AD among the different regions in the country.

Tacrolimus was prescribed in 10,234 patients (mild to severe AD) and dupilumab in 1417 (moderate to severe AD) patients for the treatment during that year, meaning that 3.4% and 0.5% of total cases were treated with these medications, respectively. They were more prescribed on contributive regime (92%), and outpatient care (99.4%).

CONCLUSIONS: The most prevalent patients with AD care in the public HCS were under 5 years. Few patients had access to specialized treatment for moderate and severe AD. There is difference in prevalence reported in the literature mainly caused by patients that were treated outside the HCS.