Efficacy of health education on treatment of children with atopic dermatitis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Atopic dermatitis (AD) seriously affects the quality of life of children and their families. This meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively analyze health education on the treatment of children with AD and the quality of life of the patient's family. A comprehensive search of reference lists in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, CNKI, and VIP databases from inception until April 2018 was performed. The weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. A total of eight randomized controlled trials studies were included in the analysis. The heterogeneity among enrolled studies was statistically significant, and the random effects model was used. The meta-analysis showed that the health education group had significantly lower SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) (WMD = 7.57 [95% CI 2.77, 12.36], P = 0.002 at 3 months; WMD = 6.88 [95% CI 2.68, 11.08], P = 0.001 at 6 months; WMD = 8.67 [95% CI 3.67, 13.67], P = 0.0007 at 12 months), objective SCORAD (WMD = 7.60 [95% CI 1.37, 13.83], P = 0.02 at 6 months; WMD = 5.15 [95% CI 1.89, 8.41], P = 0.002 at 12 months), and Infants' Dermatology Quality of Life Index (WMD = 0.96 [95% CI 0.06, 1.86], P = 0.04 at 3 months, and WMD = 1.50 [95% CI 0.33, 2.67] at 6 months, P = 0.01) scores compared with the non-health education group. Health education could improve the treatment of children with AD and promote disease control.