![]() Individuals presenting to doctors tend to have more severe disease, thus this patient population represents the tip of the iceberg relative to ill-health at the community level (3, 5). The assessment of disease in populations is an important measure in health planning and for the understanding of associations of disease with environmental factors, to meet demand and to investigate factors of importance in preventing disease in the population (2–4). Most of the studies refer to specific diseases or patient groups, which complicates the comparability and validity of the existing studies.įocusing on symptoms in dermato-epidemiology provides a new contribution to the assessment of the burden of skin morbidity in the community. Clinical experience indicates that patients frequently do not consult a doctor for acute itch, but more often do for chronic itch (defined as itch lasting longer than 6 weeks) (1). ![]() Prevalence is a measure of those individuals affected by a condition within a specific time period, while incidence is a measure of the number of new individuals who develop a condition within a specific time period. E-mail: itch is often described as the most frequent symptom in dermatology, there have been very few studies of the incidence, and a limited number of the prevalence, of chronic itch. Key words: community epidemiology itch pruritus psycho-social factors skin diseases.Įlke Weisshaar, Clinical Social Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Dermatology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Thibautstrasse 3, DE-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. Published studies show that the symptom of itch is highly prevalent it should therefore receive adequate attention from physicians and other healthcare providers, including healthcare planners. The symptom of itch is a challenge, not only to clinicians, but also within the structure of regional health systems, and with regards to accessibility to specialized medical doctors in non- Western countries. It is difficult to compare existing studies due to differing methodology and lack of standardized measures. ![]() Conference proceedings and national and international studies were included. The electronic databases PubMed, Medline and the Cochrane Library were searched. ![]() The aim of this paper is to review the current state of research on the epidemiology of chronic itch in Western and non-Western populations. Nevertheless, there are few true epidemiological studies on itch. Itch is the most frequent symptom in dermatology and has been researched more extensively in recent years. ![]()
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