The relationship between childhood atopic dermatitis and asthma in an under resourced community.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory skin disease caused by allergen exposures and estimated to affect ∼20% of children. Children in urban areas have a higher prevalence of AD compared with those living outside of urban areas. AD is believed to lead to asthma development as part of the "atopic march." Our objective was to determine the sequential and chronological relationships between AD and asthma for children in an under-resourced community. The progression from AD to asthma in the under-resourced, urban community of Sun Valley, Colorado, was examined by assessing Medicaid data for the years 2016 to 2019 for a diagnosis of AD or asthma in children 6 and 7 years old. Pearson correlations between AD and asthma diagnoses were significant only with respect to AD at age 6 years compared with asthma 1 year later, at age 7 years. By studying a susceptible community with a consistent but mixed genetic background, we found sequential and chronological links between AD and asthma.