Frequency of hand eczema in the elderly: Cross-sectional findings from the German AugUR study

Hand eczema (HE) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease caused by a genetic predisposition and environmental exposures. There is a lack of population-based studies on skin diseases in the elderly.

Our aim was to estimate the frequency of HE in the elderly to determine its burden of disease in this particular population.

We analyzed data from the research platform AugUR, a study on chronic diseases in the elderly (n = 1133, ages 70-95 years, mean age 77.6, 45.1% women). Raw frequencies were estimated using self-reports on physician-diagnosed HE from a standardized personal interview. Frequencies were standardized to the Bavarian population weighted by gender and 5-year age-groups.

In our sample 2.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6-4.3) of the paticipants reported to ever have been diagnosed with HE. Among those 57% were male. After standardization, the frequency was estimated at 2.8% (95% CI 1.9-3.9). There were no differences between male and female participants.

Compared to other studies on lifetime frequency of HE, our estimates seem to be remarkably lower. More in-depth studies with validated diagnoses are warranted to precisely estimate the burden of HE in the elderly.