Chronic hand eczema: A prospective analysis of the Swiss CARPE registry focusing on factors associated with clinical and quality of life improvement

BACKGROUND Hand eczema (HE) is common and may follow a chronic disease course. So far, prospective studies investigating the risk factors for disease progression as a prerequisite for targeted prevention are scarce. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the overall association of HE-associated factors with clinical and quality of life (QoL) improvement during a follow-up of 2 years. METHODS Data of the prospective patient cohort (N = 199) followed by the Swiss chronic HE (CHE) registry on long-term patient management (CARPE-CH) were analysed by means of both classic regression and semantic map analyses. RESULTS Both severity of HE and QoL significantly improved over the period of 2 years (P