10-year prevalence of contact allergy in the general population in Denmark estimated through the CE-DUR method

The prevalence of contact allergy in the general population has traditionally been investigated through population-based epidemiological studies. A different approach is the combination of clinical epidemiological (CE) data and the World Health Organization-defined drug utilization research (DUR) method. The CE-DUR method was applied in Denmark to estimate the prevalence of contact allergy in the general population and compare it with the prevalence estimates from the Glostrup allergy studies. Contact allergy prevalence estimates ranging from very liberal ('worst case') to conservative ('best case') assumptions were based on patch test reading data in combination with an estimate of the number of persons eligible for patch testing each year based on sales data of the 'standard series'. The estimated 10-year prevalence of contact allergy ranged between 7.3% and 12.9% for adult Danes older than 18 years. The 10-year prevalence of contact allergy measured by CE-DUR was slightly lower than previous prevalence estimates from the Glostrup allergy studies. This could probably be explained by a decrease in nickel allergy. The CE-DUR approach holds the potential of being an efficient and easy monitoring method of contact allergy prevalence.