Prevalence and Characteristics of Chronic Hand Eczema Among Adults in Denmark: A General Population-Based Study

The epidemiology of chronic hand eczema (CHE) remains poorly examined.

To investigate the prevalence of CHE in a general adult population and describe the characteristics of affected individuals.

We investigated the prevalence and characteristics of CHE using a random sample from the general Danish population (The Danish Skin Cohort). CHE was defined as eczema on the hands or wrists during a minimum of three consecutive months or reoccurrence of hand eczema at least twice within 12 months.

Out of 11 166 adults, 1306 experienced hand eczema (HE) at some point in their lifetime. Within the last 12 months, 408 (3.7%) experienced HE, of which 332 (81.4%) reported CHE. The crude 1-year period prevalence of CHE was 3.0% (95% confidence interval (CI), 2.7%-3.3%) while the standardised prevalence was 3.5% (95% CI, 3.3%-3.6%). Among adults with CHE, 70.8% were female, and the mean age was 48.0 years (standard deviation 16.6 years). Most individuals with CHE had two relapses (n = 309, 93.1%), while n = 206, 61.1%, had HE for more than 3 months. Compared to HE, CHE was more likely diagnosed by a dermatologist and affect the fingers and back of the hand.

The standardised prevalence was 3.5% (95% CI, 3.3%-3.6%) and 4.2% (95% CI, 4.0%-4.4%) for CHE and HE, respectively. We identified a large overlap between HE and CHE (81.4%) in adults from the general population, indicating that many individuals affected by eczema on the hands may experience a chronic course.