2016 Volume 10 Issue 5 Pages 537-545
Appropriate topical therapy and skin care and the removal of aggravating factors from the living environment are indispensable during the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) .
To reveal problems with the treatment of individual patients and improve the management of the disease, we asked 31 AD patients about their daily routines, such as their topical steroid therapy use ; moisturizer use ; and their dietary, bathing, housecleaning, exercise, and smoking habits. Then, we educated them about AD therapy. One year later, we asked them the same questions and then examined the correlations between the behavioral alterations they had made and the degree of improvement in their clinical manifestations using the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) and quality of life (QOL) score. Behavioral improvements in the use of topical therapy, were found to be correlated with the improvement in the SCORAD score, whereas behavioral improvements in skin care were shown to be correlated with the improvement in the QOL score, especially improvements in the "Emotions" scale. However, none of the examined behavioral alterations in the daily routines were correlated with the improvement in a particular clinical manifestation.
The effects of behavioral alterations targeting the daily routines of AD patients on their clinical manifestations need to be examined using multivariate analysis.
