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Objective: To determine the climate conditions that affect the incidence of atopic dermatitis from infancy to 3 years old. Study design: We analyzed 100,303 children born from 2011 to 2014 for follow-up until 3 years old using cohort data from the Japan Environment and Children's Study. The study included 15 Regional Centers, including 19 prefectures across Japan. We used meteorological data of the Japan Meteorological Agency. We calculated the hazard ratio (HR) of the standard deviation and low vs. high mean values of several climate conditions in children in their first 6 months of life to determine the incidence of atopic dermatitis. Results: The Kaplan–Meier curve showed that children born in the months of October to December had the highest incidence of atopic dermatitis. Among climate conditions, a one standard deviation increase in the temperature (HR = 0.87), minimum temperature (HR = 0.87), and vapor pressure (HR = 0.87) showed the lowest HRs for the incidence of atopic dermatitis. These results were confirmed by an analysis by strata of the birth season. A low vapor pressure (HR = 1.26, p<0.0001) and the combination of a low mean temperature or low mean minimum temperature and low vapor pressure (HR = 1.26, p<0.0001) were associated with the highest incidence of atopic dermatitis. These results were consistent when they were adjusted for a maternal and paternal history of allergy and the prefecture of birth. Conclusion: Among climate conditions, a low vapor pressure is the most strongly associated with a high incidence of atopic dermatitis. Measuring vapor pressure may be useful for preventing atopic dermatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin inflammation leads to altered cytokine/chemokine production and causes systemic inflammation. The systemic mechanism of atopic dermatitis (AD) is recognized to affect systemic metabolism. This study aimed to examine the relationship between early-onset persistent eczema and body weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), in addition to food allergy in a birth cohort among infants. This study design was a nationwide, multicenter, prospective birth cohort study—the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS). Generalized linear models were fitted for z scores of weight, height, BMI, and food allergy to evaluate the relationship between eczema and these outcomes for infants at age1, 2, and 3 years. Persistent eczema was negatively associated with height at the age of 2 years (estimated coefficient, −0.127; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.16 to −0.095) and 3 years (−0.177; 95% CI, −0.214 to −0.139). The same tendency was also observed with weight and BMI. Early disease onset at younger than 1 year and persistent eczema had the strongest association with development of food allergy at age 3 years (OR, 11.794; 95% CI, 10.721–12.975). One phenotype of eczema with early-onset and persistent disease creates a risk of both physical growth impairment and development of food allergy. Infants who present with the early-onset and persistent type of eczema should be carefully evaluated daily for impaired physical growth and development of food allergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]