Eczema linked to 28% higher shingles risk in UK primary care analysis
An analysis in JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft found that people with eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) face an elevated risk of developing shingles (or herpes zoster).
A study published in the JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft has found that people with eczema in the UK face a 28% higher risk of developing shingles, according to a primary care analysis. Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic inflammatory skin condition, while shingles is a painful rash caused by a reactivation of the virus that leads to chickenpox, particularly in later life or in immunosuppressed individuals.
When researchers examined data from 1997 to 2023 in a UK database containing information on 113,426,267 individuals, they discovered that those with eczema had a 28% higher likelihood of developing shingles after accounting for factors like age, sex, pre-existing conditions, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. The use of immunosuppressant medications had a small impact on shingles risk.
Furthermore, the severity of eczema appeared to increase the likelihood of developing shingles. The study suggests that these findings could potentially guide vaccination guidelines. Atopic dermatitis is linked to herpes zoster in adults: A matched cohort study using electronic health records data in England, was conducted and published in JDDG Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft (2026). The study's findings were automatically generated using an LLM model.
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