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. 2025 Apr 2:13:1569119.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1569119. eCollection 2025.

Global, regional, and national burden of older adult atopic dermatitis in 204 countries and territories worldwide

Yi Ou #  1 , Xinyi Shao #  1 , Jingbo Zhang  1 , Jin Chen  1
Affiliations

Global, regional, and national burden of older adult atopic dermatitis in 204 countries and territories worldwide

Yi Ou et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: With the aging global population, older adult atopic dermatitis (AD) is emerging as an increasingly significant health challenge. This study aimed to evaluate the global burden of older adult AD from 1990 to 2021 and to project its change to 2050.

Methods: The estimates and 95% uncertainty intervals of prevalence, incidence, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) attributable to AD among individuals aged over 60 years were extracted from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) Study 2021. We used joinpoint regression analysis, decomposition analysis, cross-country inequality analysis, frontier analysis and prediction model to epidemiological analysis.

Results: From 1990 to 2021, the global prevalence of older adult AD increased to 11,009,630 cases (95% UI: 9,915,829 to 12,170,941), even as ASRs declined, which were primarily driven by population growth. It was observed that females and 75-79 years old had higher incidence rates. SDI relative and frontier analysis exhibited that incidence, prevalence and DALYs rates were positively correlated with SDI levels, while SDI-related inequalities had a significant decrease. Predictions up to 2050 anticipated increasing older adult AD incidence, prevalence, and DALYs numbers, while only age-standardized disability-adjusted life-year rates (ASDRs) were expected to decline.

Conclusion: The burden of older adult AD varied by genders, age groups, regions, countries and climatic conditions. Although the ASRs had shown a decline over time, the burden of older adult AD remained significant, especially in regions with high SDI levels. In the future, the burden of older adult AD was projected to continue rising until 2050, thereby targeted interventions and public health strategies were needed to address this trend.

Keywords: atopic dermatitis; disability-adjusted life years; global burden of disease study; incidence; the older adult.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Jointpoint regression analysis of global incidence (A), prevalence (B) and DALYs (C) of older adult atopic dermatitis from 1990 to 2021. DALYs, disability-adjusted life-years.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pearson correlation analysis between the SDI and ASRs of incidence (A), prevalence (B), and DALYs (C) for older adult atopic dermatitis across 204 countries and territories levels in 2021. The expected ASRs in 2021 based solely on SDI were represented by the black line. For each country, points depict estimates in 2021. ASRs, age-standardized rates; DALYs, disability-adjusted life-years; SDI, Socio-demographic Index.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The global incidence (A), prevalence (B) and DALYs (C) of older adult atopic dermatitis in 204 countries and territories. DALYs, disability-adjusted life-years.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Decomposition analysis of changes in incidence (A), prevalence (B) and DALYs (C) rates by sex and SDI regions. DALYs, disability-adjusted life-years; SDI, Socio-demographic Index.
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