Atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic skin disease, features dry skin, severe itching, inflammation and impaired quality of life. Moisturizing is an integral part of AD treatment; however, its potential for preventing AD is unclear. 

A recent study evaluated whether the early use of emollients in infancy can prevent the later development of AD by searching reputed databases for collecting randomized controlled trials and sorting nine articles in total. It found odds ratio value for the incidence rate as 0.7, with no significant publication bias demonstrated by Egger’s test. Also, the sensitivity analysis indicated the reliability of the final conclusion. 

This study showed no significant difference in the incidence rate of AD between the experimental and control groups. However, different methods of using emollients, different follow-up times and different sample sizes of the study interfered with drawing a definitive conclusion. Randomized controlled, multicenter, large-sample trials with an excellent study design and high methodological quality are warranted on the early application of emollients in high-risk infants to prevent AD.

Source: Xu D, Stengel R, Sun P. Effectiveness of emollients in the prevention of atopic dermatitis in infants: a meta-analysis. Dermatology. 2022;238(4):711-6.