OBJECTIVES: As no Canadian data exist yet, the objective of the study is to determine the burden of illness of patients suffering from eczema in Canada. The resource use, direct costs, indirects costs, demographics and other factors affected by eczema were measured over a 1-year period. METHODS: Patients were recruited through Community Pharmacists in Canada and were asked to fill out a four-page survey. Information about gender, age, marital status, employment status, income, healthcare practitioner visits, other medical services visits, hospitalization, absenteeism at work/school, over-the-counter (OTC) treatment, household expenses, sleep disturbances, severity and duration of the disease, number of flares and length of each flare and type of insurance coverage were collected. Costs were attached to the different variables to calculate the burden of illness of eczema for the whole cohort but the group was also divided by disease severity. RESULTS: Over 100 patients were recruited and more than 70 patients have returned the survey to this point. Each patient has visited a physician due to his/her eczema at least once in the last 12 months. The two variables that have had the most impact on the cost of the disease are the consumption of OTC medications and the extra household expenses incurred by the patient. As expected, the burden increases with the severity of the disease. Nobody was hospitalised due to their eczema. CONCLUSIONS: Taken individually, the economic burden of eczema is not exceptionnaly high but given the prevalence of the disease it represents a high burden for the society. The results are within the range of what has been published until now. Prescription costs were not measured directly in this survey and thus the results are most likely underestimated.