Effectiveness of Emollients in the Prevention of Atopic Dermatitis in Infants: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic skin disease characterized by dry skin, severe itching, inflammation and impaired quality of life. Moisturizing is an integral part of treatment for AD, but its potential for prevention of AD is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate whether the early use of emollients in infancy can prevent later development of AD.

Methods: We searched Medline, Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library and other databases to collect randomized controlled trials on early use of emollients in infants for a meta-analysis.

Results: Nine articles were included. The OR value for incidence rate was 0.7 (95% CI: 0.48-1.01). No significant publication bias was found by Egger's test. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the final conclusion was reliable.

Conclusions: We found that the difference in incidence rate of AD between the experimental and control groups was not statistically significant. However, due to different methods of using emollients, different follow-up times and different sample sizes included in this meta-analysis, a definitive conclusion could not be reached in this study. In the future, it is still necessary to carry out randomized controlled, multicenter, large-sample trials with an excellent study design and high methodological quality on early application of emollients in high-risk infants to prevent AD.