Study Identifies Key Patient-Centered Attributes of Atopic Dermatitis Flare

Key Takeaways:

• Patients with AD reached a consensus on key attributes of a flare.
• More than 75% of survey participants believe a patient-centered definition would improve communication with healthcare providers.
• More than half of the patients felt aligned with their healthcare practitioner on what constituted a flare.

A new study revealed a consensus on the patient-centered definition of an atopic dermatitis (AD) flare.

Researchers for the study recruited 26 participants for focus groups and 631 participants for a survey through the National Eczema Association. The participants rated various attributes of AD flares, with the end goal of reaching consensus on which characteristics should be included in a definition. Consensus was achieved for 15 statements during the focus groups, with 12 of these gaining further consensus from the larger survey cohort. The study involved focus groups and a large-scale survey of adults with AD, aiming to identify the patient-reported attributes that define a flare. The consensus may improve communication between patients and healthcare providers and enhance the evaluation of treatment effectiveness.

According to the results, more than half (52.9%) of respondents felt aligned with their healthcare practitioner on the definition of a flare. Furthermore, 77.6% agreed that a patient-centered definition would be useful when discussing their condition with their healthcare team. The results indicate that a clearer, patient-informed definition could facilitate shared decision-making and improve treatment outcomes in clinical practice.

"Our findings may be useful in clinical practice to improve communication between patients and HCPs who may be using the term flare without a mutual understanding of its meaning," the authors wrote in the study. "The findings may also be applied to the development of outcome measures focused on AD flares, which is an important treatment outcome for people with AD."

Drucker A, et al. JAMA Dermatology. 2024. Doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2024.3054