Quality of life and economy of allergic skin diseases

Introduction: Due to their increasing frequency, allergic skin diseases, especially atopic dermatitis, contact allergies and chronic urticaria, are gaining in socioeconomic importance. For this reason, clinical and epidemiological studies increasingly study the effects of the disease on quality of life and costs. The present overview article presents the status of research in these two areas. Methods: a) Literature review of articles in medical databases on the quality of life and on cost factors in the diagnoses atopic eczema, allergic contact eczema and chronic urticaria. b) Cohort studies on n = 388 patients with atopic dermatitis (n = 165), chronic urticaria (n = 62), insect bite allergy (n = 79), drug intolerance (n = 59) and food intolerance (n = 23) compared to n = 240 healthy people. Results: All of the studies published thus far report considerable detriment to the quality of life in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), allergic contact eczema and chronic urticaria. In the direct comparison, our own data show that patients with atopic dermatitis, food allergies and chronic urticaria have considerably greater reductions of quality of life than patients with insect venom allergy and drug intolerance. The annual cost of disease in a patient with atopic dermatitis is about DM 4,059.00 with DM 2,064.12 in direct costs for health insurance, DM 1,3 96.68 in costs for the patient and DM 662.40 in indirect costs. Extrapolated for Germany, these data and data of additional studies result in costs in AD of about DM 3 to 7 million. Conclusion: The high detriment to quality of life of patients with allergic skin diseases should provide impetus for qualified and extensive management of disease. The broad socio-economic consequences of allergic skin diseases justify high expenditures for allergological research, prevention and therapy.