Impacts of itch in children

Many children have itchy skin diseases that affect the quality of their lives. However, there have been few studies that address the features of itch and how it impacts everyday life. To achieve our goal to identify themes about how children experience itch and its impacts, we interviewed 15 children with itch. We confirmed the importance of how severe itch is, and found that children also described how itch feels, how long it lasts, and how often it occurs. Children emphasized how the environment triggers itch through changes in weather, emotional or physical stress, sweating and the wearing of certain fabrics. Itch can lead to scratch marks and skin infection, make physical function painful, impair concentration and be emotionally upsetting. Itch affects social relationships with family, teachers and other children, contributing to children with itch feeling different. When these experiences and impacts were compared with those of adults who were asked similar questions, children more often experienced itch as painful and noted an influence on clothing decisions, physical activities and daily activities. Children often felt alienated, while adults more often were concerned about how others regarded them. Furthermore, children more often than adults expressed anger, whereas adults were annoyed and frustrated about the burden of their disease. In our review of previous research, we found no questionnaires specifically designed to measure how these factors affect children. This suggests the need to develop a new scale that focuses on the experiences of children with itch, and the impact of itch on their lives. Linked Article:   Fang et al. Br J Dermatol 2021; 184 :896–904.