Positive change in hand care habits using therapeutic patient education in chronic hand eczema

International audience; Background: Chronic hand eczema (CHE) is a major burden for patients. Mainte-nance treatment involves prevention measures limiting detrimental behaviour and aggravating factors. Objective: To evaluate the effect of a standardised care program including therapeu-tic patient education (TPE) on hand care behaviours, clinical severity, quality of life, and work productivity.Methods: A single-centre study was conducted prospectively. Together with the pre-scription of a topical steroid, patients participated in individual TPE sessions. Evalua-tions were performed initially and repeated three months after the therapeutic intervention. They included a structured analysis of hand care behaviours, the assess-ment of the mTLSS (modified Total Lesion Symptom Score), DLQI (Dermatology Life Quality Index), and WPAI (Work Productivity and Activity Impairment). Results: Seventy-one patients were included (30 men, 42.3%). Three months after completion of the standardised care program, hand care behaviours such as hand washing and rinsing, hand drying, wearing protective gloves, using moisturizing cre-ams, and following specific treatments and recommendations for CHE improved sig-nificantly in the 58 patients who completed the study and were associated with a significant improvement in the mTLSS, DLQI, and WPAI scores. Conclusions: TPE helps patients change their hand care behaviours and adopt skin protection measures, and may improve CHE severity, quality of life, and work productivity.