Effectiveness of soap in fall-winter for maintaining remission of eczema in children with atopic dermatitis

Abstract

 Objective : To evaluate the effectiveness of washing with soap in fall-winter as treatment for eczema in children with atopic dermatitis (AD).

 Methods : We conducted a nonrandomized intervention trial. We enrolled children with AD whose eczema was controlled with regular steroid ointment application on less than 1 of 3 days. For 4 weeks, participants washed their upper and lower limbs on one side with soap and on the other side without soap. The primary outcome was the difference between the soap and non-soap sides in the absolute change in EASI scores from baseline to week 4.

 Results : Of 30 participants, 4 withdrew ; the remaining 26 were analyzed. For the soap and non-soap sides, the primary outcome was −0.10±0.4 and −0.03±0.3, respectively (p=0.48), the mean POEM score was 1.4±1.6 and 1.4±1.6, respectively (p=0.95), and the total frequency of additional steroid ointment applications was 7.7±11.1 and 7.7±12.6 times, respectively (p=1.0). Participants were categorized according to self-assessments of the usefulness of soap. Four, 17, and 5 were assigned to soap-effective, invariant, and non-soap-effective groups.

 Conclusion : For children with controlled AD, washing with soap was not effective for treating eczema in the fall-winter.