Medición de la prevalencia de la dermatitis atópica en una población escolar madrileña

Abstract

Abstract—Background. The United Kingdom Working Party for Atopic Dermatitis has developed a diagnostic questionnaire, whose English and Romanian versions have been validated both in a hospital and out-of-hospital setting. Objective. Our objective was to develop a Spanish version of this questionnaire and use it to address the frequency of the disease in the general school-age population in Health Area No. 11 in Madrid. Results. The validation in a hospital setting showed a sensitivity of 76.5%, with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 66.8-84.1%. Specificity was 90.4 % (CI = 83.8-94.6 %), the positive predictive value 85.7 % (CI = 76.4-91.8 %) and the negative predictive value 83.6 % (CI = 76.3-89 %). Five schools were selected at random, and all of their students were invited to participate in the study. 874 children were examined (Response rate: 62.9 %). The one-year period prevalence was 9.95% (7.97; 11.94). Point prevalence was 7.09% (5.39; 8.80). In the 3-7 age group, the one-year period prevalence was 11.2%; in the 8-12 group, 10.3%; and in the 13-17 group, 6.9%. There were no statistically significant differences when comparing by sex, age or type of school (public/private). The result offered by the questionnaire was validated through the clinical diagnosis of a dermatologist, in a sub-sample of 130 patients. The results obtained were: sensitivity = 63.6% (31.6; 87.6); specificity = 96.7% (91.4; 99.0); positive predictive value = 63.6 % (31.6; 87.6); negative predictive value = 96.7% (91.4; 99.0). Conclusions. We believe that the Spanish version that we have developed of the diagnostic questionnaire is useful and gives good results, along the lines of those published by other groups.