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Meriem Amouri, Abderahmen Masmoudi, Nozha Borgi, Ahmed Rebai, Hamida Turki. Atopic dermatitis in Tunisian schoolchildren. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2011;9:34 Key words: Atopic dermatitis, atopy, children, epidemiology, prevalence, Tunisia Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/9/34/full Received: 03/06/2011 - Accepted: 23/07/2011 - Published: 28/07/2011 © Meriem Amouri et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Atopic dermatitis in Tunisian schoolchildren
Meriem Amouri1,&, Abderahmen Masmoudi1, Nozha Borgi2, Ahmed Rebai3, Hamida Turki1
1Department of Dermatology, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia, 2National office of Family and Population, Sfax, Tunisia, 3Center of biotechnology, Sfax, Tunisia
&Corresponding author
Amouri Meriem, El Ain route km 1, department of dermatology, Hedi Chaker hospital, zip code 3029, Sfax, Tunisia
The prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) is low in North Africa. We describe the epidemiology of this atopic condition among school children in Tunisia.
We conducted a Cross-sectional survey study of 5 to 6-year-old schoolchildren from 21 primary schools of Sfax. The diagnosis of AD was based on the U.K. Working Party diagnostic criteria. A questionnaire including these criteria and some risk factors of AD was issued to the children. All children were examined by one dermatologist.
Among the 1617 examined children, ten had AD giving a one-year prevalence of 0.65%. The overall sex ratio was 2.33. The disease occurred before the age of 2 years in 3 children. Pure AD without concomitant respiratory allergies was noted in 3 cases. One first-degree family member with atopy was at least noted in seven children. The strongest associated factor was the presence of AD in at least one parent and maternal age at the time of the child birth. Nor breast-feeding neither environmental characteristics of the house did correlate with AD.
The prevalence of AD in Tunisian schoolchildren is low but comparable to those of other developing countries. Family history of atopy and maternal age at the birth time was the most important associated factors.
