Atopic Dermatitis in Individuals of Asian and African Ancestry: A Scoping Systematic Review

Atopic Dermatitis (AD) affects individuals from all ethnicities and backgrounds. It has the highest global disease burden of dermatoses. There is a widely held belief that the presentation of AD is not described well in individuals with non-European ancestry in peer-reviewed literature. However, to our knowledge, this has not been investigated previously.

To quantify the number of peer-reviewed literature describing the appearance of clinical features of AD in non-European ancestry, particularly those originating from the Asian and African continents.

A systematic scoping review between December 2020 and January 2021 was performed to quantify the number of studies describing AD in individuals of African and Asian ancestry.

Sixteen studies were identified. None of the studies provided a clear description of AD in our population groups. Two studies described features of lichen planus like-AD in African American individuals. All studies reported on observed clinical features of AD.

The review confirmed a lack of literature describing AD in populations of non-European heritage. It should encourage authors to make a deliberate effort to describe the appearance of clinical features of AD to enable understanding of how they may differentiate in individuals originating from different parts of the globe.