Background: Sweat(ing) is a common aggravating factor of atopic dermatitis (AD), and many school children with AD experience the exacerbation of their disease in summer.
Objective: We evaluated the usefulness of taking shower at the school for the management of AD in summer.
Methods: Fifty-eight school children with moderate or severer atopic dermatitis were enrolled in the study. Subjects were allocated to one of following groups, group A: no shower (n=15), group B: 4-weeks shower (n=22), group C1: 2-weeks shower in the first half (n=11), or group C2: 2-weeks shower in the latter half (n=10), and took (or did not take) shower at the school from the beginning of September. Disease severity was evaluated on day 0, 2 weeks later and 4 weeks later using SCORAD scoring system.
Results: Significant improvements in SCORAD scores after 4 weeks were observed only in groups B and C1. When the subjects were sub-divided by the severity of the disease, the significant effect of shower was limited to the patients with severe and most severe disease. Similar results were obtained with a modified SCORAD score in which subjective symptoms were excluded.
Conclusion: It is useful to take showers at the school for the management of AD for the children with severer disease.