Early-Life Exposure to Antibiotics Not Associated With the Development of Atopic Dermatitis

Early-life exposure to antibiotics does not increase the risk of developing atopic dermatitis (AD), according to results from a recent study published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology.

Researchers aimed to examine the risk of developing AD among children with early-life exposure to antibiotics by studying children aged 0 to 14 years between 2004 and 2017 enrolled in the Italian Pedianet database from birth to at least 1 year. Statistical analyses were used to determine the association between antibiotic exposure during the first year of life with incident AD.

A total of 73816 children were included in the study. Of these, 34202 had at least 1 antibiotic prescription. AD was observed in 8% of the unexposed and exposed children. Early antibiotic exposure was not associated with an excess risk of AD compared with unexposed children.

“These results are not suggestive of any significant association between exposure to antibiotics and subsequent AD onset and support the possible presence of protopathic bias,” claimed the study authors.

Reference
Cantarutti A, Amidei CB, Bonaugurio AS, Rescigno P, Canova C. Early-life exposure to antibiotics and subsequent development of atopic dermatitis. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. Published online June 20, 2022. doi:10.1080/17512433.2022.2092471