Evaluation of psychiatric morbidity in atopic dermatitis (AD) patients is essential for comprehensive care. AD is known to be associated with multiple mental disorders. Until now, a possible association between AD and eating disorders has remained unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationship between AD, eating disorders (ED) and food allergies. This retrospective epidemiological Finnish hospital registry-based study was conducted by identifying all cases of AD under the age of 18 at the time of diagnosis between 1987 and 2018. Preselected ED diagnoses at the age of 18 and 30 years were searched for AD cases and for age- and sex-matched controls derived from a random sample of 500,000 Finnish residents in the Finnish Population Register Center database. In this study of 70,584 AD cases and 270,783 controls, AD was significantly associated with all ED diagnoses compared to controls. At the age of 18 years, AD was most strongly associated with bulimia (adjusted OR 3.01, 95% CI 2.01–4.51) and binge-eating disorder (adjusted OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.57–3.23), the corresponding associations still being statistically significant at the age of 30. The found associations are not influenced by age, sex or food allergy. We conclude that this retrospective hospital registry-based study revealed significant associations between AD and eating disorders.

ESDR042 - Atopic dermatitis and the risk of eating disorders

50th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Dermatological Research. VIRTUAL MEETING