Table 3. Eczema prevalence and severity are associated with poorer health outcomes and increased healthcare utilization.
| Comorbid health condition | No eczema | Eczema | P-value# | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freq | Percent (95% CI) | Freq | Percent (95% CI) | ||
| Number of chronic conditions | |||||
| None | 54191 | 79.1 (78.4, 79.8) | 6957 | 65.5 (63.3, 67.8) | < 0.0001 |
| 1 | 9233 | 12.9 (12.3, 13.5) | 1975 | 19.7 (17.8, 21.6) | |
| 2 | 2736 | 3.8 (3.5, 4.1) | 558 | 5.3 (4.4, 6.3) | |
| 3-4 | 2156 | 2.9 (2.6, 3.2) | 541 | 5.5 (4.4, 6.7) | |
| 5+ | 864 | 1.3 (1.1, 1.6) | 309 | 3.9 (2.8, 5.0) | |
| Overall health | |||||
| Excellent | 46262 | 63.4 (62.4, 64.3) | 5592 | 52.2 (49.9, 54.5) | < 0.0001 |
| Very good | 15218 | 22.1 (21.3, 22.9) | 2949 | 28.5 (26.4, 30.7) | |
| Good | 6314 | 11.5 (10.8, 12.2) | 1329 | 13.5 (12.0, 15.1) | |
| Fair | 1195 | 2.6 (2.2, 3.0) | 395 | 5.0 (3.8, 6.1) | |
| Poor | 197 | 0.4 (0.3, 0.6) | 71 | 0.7 (0.4, 1.0) | |
| Impaired sleep (nights per week) | |||||
| 0 nights | 28199 | 64.3 (63.2, 65.3) | 3471 | 57.4 (54.4, 60.4) | < 0.0001 |
| 1-3 nights | 14628 | 27.0 (26.1, 28.0) | 2014 | 29.9 (27.2, 32.6) | |
| 4+ nights | 4179 | 7.6 (7.1, 8.1) | 651 | 10.8 (9.0, 12.7) | |
| Healthcare utilization within the past 12 months | |||||
| More services than most children same age | 7812 | 11.2 (10.6, 11.8) | 1999 | 20.7 (18.7, 22.7) | < 0.0001 |
| Seen a specialist | 16390 | 21.3 (20.6, 2.1) | 4111 | 37.4 (35.2, 29.6) | < 0.0001 |
| Number of health, mental, dental, therapy services used | |||||
| 1 of 5 | 11563 | 19.2 (18.4, 20.0) | 1556 | 16.4 (14.9, 18.0) | < 0.0001 |
| 2 of 5 | 39567 | 57.5 (56.5, 58.4) | 4698 | 44.6 (42.4, 46.9) | |
| 3 of 5 | 15897 | 20.8 (20.1, 21.6) | 3510 | 33.4 (31.2, 35.6) | |
| 4 of 5 | 2153 | 2.5 (2.3, 2.8) | 576 | 5.5 (4.4, 6.6) | |
| Comorbid health condition | Mild or moderate eczema | Severe eczema | P-value# | ||
| Freq | Percent (95% CI) | Freq | Percent (95% CI) | ||
| Number of chronic conditions | < 0.0001 | ||||
| None | 6726 | 66.9 (64.6, 69.2) | 262 | 46.1 (36.8, 55.3) | |
| 1 | 1835 | 19.6 (17.6, 21.5) | 148 | 22.1 (15.3, 28.8) | |
| 2 | 501 | 5.2 (4.2, 6.2) | 57 | 6.7 (3.7, 9.6) | |
| 3-4 | 492 | 5.2 (4.0, 6.3) | 52 | 10.9 (6.1, 15.8) | |
| 5+ | 256 | 3.2 (2.2, 4.1) | 57 | 14.2 (6.8, 21.7) | |
| Overall health | < 0.0001 | ||||
| Excellent | 5429 | 54.1 (51.7, 56.4) | 181 | 26.1 (18.6, 33.6) | |
| Very good | 2804 | 28.9 (26.7, 31.1) | 163 | 24.1 (17.4, 30.8) | |
| Good | 1197 | 12.4 (11.0, 13.9) | 141 | 28.2 (18.9, 37.5) | |
| Fair | 328 | 4.1 (3.0, 5.2) | 67 | 16.9 (9.4, 24.4) | |
| Poor | 50 | 0.4 (0.2, 0.6) | 22 | 4.5 (1.3, 7.8) | |
| Impaired sleep (nights per week) | 0.003 | ||||
| 0 nights | 3252 | 57.5 (54.3, 60.6) | 229 | 54.6 (43.5, 65.8) | |
| 1-3 nights | 1919 | 30.7 (27.9, 33.5) | 97 | 21.0 (13.1, 28.9) | |
| 4+ nights | 589 | 10.0 (8.2, 11.7) | 62 | 22.2 (11.1, 33.3) | |
| Healthcare utilization within the past 12 months | |||||
| More services than most children same age | 1786 | 19.3 (17.3, 21.3) | 222 | 38.5 (29.8, 47.2) | < 0.0001 |
| Seen a specialist | 3811 | 36.3 (34.1, 38.5) | 322 | 51.3 (42.1, 60.5) | 0.001 |
| Number of health, mental, dental, therapy services used | < 0.0001 | ||||
| 1 of 5 | 1519 | 16.9 (15.3, 18.5) | 47 | 11.4 (4.0, 18.9) | |
| 2 of 5 | 4526 | 45.4 (43.0, 47.7) | 188 | 34.3 (25.8, 42.7) | |
| 3 of 5 | 3267 | 32.9 (30.6, 35.2) | 257 | 38.6 (30.1, 47.1) | |
| 4 of 5 | 498 | 4.9 (3.9, 5.9) | 84 | 15.7 (8.1, 23.4) | |
Rao-Scott chi-square test
Parental refusal to answer a particular question or response of “don't know” occurred for the questions pertaining to ever eczema in 79 (0.1%), eczema severity in 22 (0.2%), number of chronic conditions in 1 (0.0002%), overall health in 18 (0.01%), impaired sleep in 493 (1.1%), more services than most children the same age in 370 (0.3%), seeing a specialist in 96 (0.1%) and number of services used in 0 (0.0%), respectively.
Note: The proportional odds assumption was not met (Score test, P<0.01). Therefore, ordinal logistic regression was not used. Rather, all analyses of severity used binary logistic regression on dichotomized severe vs. mild-moderate disease. However, similar results were obtained when severity was dichotomized moderate-severe vs. mild.