“It’s like the bad guy in a movie who just doesn’t die”: A qualitative exploration of young people’s adaptation to eczema and implications for self-care.

Abstract

Background
Eczema is a common childhood inflammatory skin condition, affecting more than 1 in 5 children. A popular perception is children ‘outgrow eczema’, although epidemiological studies have shown that, for many, eczema follows a life‐long episodic course. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of young people about the nature of their eczema and how these perceptions relate to their self‐care and adapting to living with eczema.

Methods
Secondary inductive thematic analysis of interviews conducted for Healthtalk.org. A total of 23 interviews with young people with eczema were included. Participants consisted of 17 women and 6 men, ranging from 17 to 25 years old.

Results
Participants generally experienced eczema as an episodic long‐term condition and reported a mismatch between information received about eczema and their experiences. The experience of eczema as long‐term and episodic had implications for self‐care, challenging the process of identifying triggers of eczema flare‐ups and evaluating the success of treatment regimes. Participants’ experiences of eczema over time also had implications for adaptation and finding a balance between accepting eczema as long‐term and hoping it would go away. This linked to a gradual shift in treatment expectations from ‘cure’ to ‘control’ of eczema.

Conclusions
For young people who continue to experience eczema beyond childhood, a greater focus on self‐care for a long‐term condition may be helpful. Greater awareness of the impact of early messages around ‘growing out of’ eczema and provision of high quality information may help manage expectations and support adaptation to treatment regimes.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Ingrid Muller: orcid.org/0000-0001-9341-6133

ORCID for Kate Greenwell: orcid.org/0000-0002-3662-1488

ORCID for Miriam Santer: orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-5260

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