Parental E-Cigarette Use Linked to Increase in Pediatric Atopic Dermatitis

TUESDAY, May 28, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Parental electronic cigarette use is associated with increased odds of pediatric atopic dermatitis (AD), according to a research letter published online May 22 in JAMA Dermatology.

Gun Min Youn, from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the 2014 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey to examine the association between parental e-cigarette use and pediatric AD. Pediatric AD was ascertained by asking whether the child had eczema or any kind of skin allergy in the past 12 months.

The researchers found that 13.1 percent of 48,637,111 weighted individuals (mean age, 8.4 years) indicated a history of AD. The prevalence of parental e-cigarette use was 14.4 and 18.0 percent in the non-AD and AD populations, respectively. Children with parental e-cigarette use had higher odds of AD after adjustment for asthma, allergic rhinitis, respiratory allergies, parental smoking history, and sociodemographic factors (adjusted odds ratio, 1.24). A similar trend was seen in a subgroup analysis of nonsmoking and smoking cohorts (adjusted odds ratios, 1.37 and 1.19, respectively), which persisted, regardless of parent sex.

“The data from this study can support only the conclusion that household e-cigarette use may be associated with past-year AD,” the authors write.

One author disclosed receiving consultation fees from Corvus Therapeutics.

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