Atopic eczema is a common and debilitating condition associated with depression and anxiety, but the nature of this association remains unclear. To explore the temporal relationship between atopic eczema and new depression/anxiety. This matched cohort study used routinely collected data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, linked to hospital admissions data. We identified adults with atopic eczema (1998-2016) using a validated algorithm, and up to 5 individuals without atopic eczema matched on date of diagnosis, age, sex, and general practice. We estimated the hazard ratio (HR) for new depression/anxiety using stratified Cox regression to account for age, sex, calendar period, Index of Multiple Deprivation, glucocorticoid treatment, obesity, smoking, and harmful alcohol use. We identified 526,808 adults with atopic eczema who were matched to 2,569,030 without. Atopic eczema was associated with increased incidence of new depression (HR, 1.14; 99% CI, 1.12-1.16) and anxiety (HR, 1.17; 99% CI, 1.14-1.19). We observed a stronger effect of atopic eczema on depression with increasing atopic eczema severity (HR [99% CI] compared with no atopic eczema: mild, 1.10 [1.08-1.13]; moderate, 1.19 [1.15-1.23]; and severe, 1.26 [1.17-1.37]). A dose-response association, however, was less apparent for new anxiety diagnosis (HR [99% CI] compared with no atopic eczema: mild, 1.14 [1.11-1.18]; moderate, 1.21 [1.17-1.26]; and severe, 1.15; [1.05-1.25]). Adults with atopic eczema are more likely to develop new depression and anxiety. For depression, we observed a dose-response relationship with atopic eczema severity.

Background Atopic eczema is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease. Research suggests an association between atopic eczema and obesity, with inconsistent evidence from European populations. Objectives To explore the association between diagnosed atopic eczema and being overweight or obese, and whether increased atopic eczema severity was associated with higher body mass index. Methods We undertook a cross‐sectional analysis within a matched (age, sex, GP practice) cohort of adults with and without a diagnosis of atopic eczema. We used primary care (Clinical Practice Research Datalink Gold) and linked hospital admissions data (1998‐2016). We used conditional logistic regression to compare the odds of being overweight or obese (adjusting for confounders and potential mediators) in those with atopic eczema (mild, moderate and severe, and all eczema) to those without. Results We identified 441,746 people with atopic eczema, matched to 1,849,722 without. People with atopic eczema had slightly higher odds of being overweight or obese compared to those without (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.07, 1.09) after adjusting for age, asthma and socio‐economic deprivation. Adjusting for potential mediators (high‐dose glucocorticoids, harmful alcohol use, anxiety, depression, smoking) had minimal effect on effect estimates (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.06, 1.08). We saw no evidence that odds of being overweight or obese increased with increasing atopic eczema severity, and there was no association in people with severe eczema. Conclusion We found evidence of a small overall association between atopic eczema and being overweight or obese. However, there was no association with obesity among those with the most severe eczema. Our findings are largely reassuring for this prevalent patient group that may already have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Background Emerging evidence suggests an association between common inflammatory skin diseases and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Objective To explore the association between CKD stages 3‐5 and atopic eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, and hidradenitis suppurativa. Methods We undertook two complementary analyses; a prevalent case‐control and a cohort study using routinely collected primary care data (UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink [CPRD]). We matched individuals with CKD3‐5 in CPRD on March 2018 with up to five individuals without CKD on GP practice, age and sex. We compared the prevalence of CKD3‐5 among individuals with and without each inflammatory skin disease. We included individuals in CPRD with diabetes mellitus (2004‐2018) in a cohort analysis to compare the incidence of CKD3‐5 among people with and without atopic eczema and psoriasis. Results There were 56,602 cases with CKD3‐5 and 268,305 controls without. Cases were more likely than controls to have a history of atopic eczema (odds ratio [OR] 1.14; 99% confidence interval 1.11‐1.17), psoriasis (1.13; 1.08‐1.19), or hidradenitis suppuritiva (1.49; 1.19‐1.85), but were slightly less likely to have been diagnosed with rosacea (0.91; 0.86‐0.95), after adjusting for age, sex, practice (matching factors), index of multiple deprivation, diabetes, smoking, harmful alcohol use and obesity. Results remained similar after adjusting for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. In the cohort with diabetes (N=335,827), there was no evidence that CKD3‐5 incidence was associated with atopic eczema or psoriasis. Conclusions Atopic eczema, psoriasis, and hidradenitis suppurativa are weakly associated with CKD3‐5. Future research is needed to elucidate potential mechanisms and clinical significance of our findings.