Passive tobacco smoke exposure, particularly paternal smoking and postnatal household exposure, is associated with increased disease severity among children aged 0 to 2 years with nonallergic atopic dermatitis, according to a study published in Advances in Dermatology and Allergology.
Halil Alkaya, from Ümraniye Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, and colleagues evaluated the association between early-life passive tobacco smoke exposure and atopic dermatitis disease severity. The analysis included 104 children aged 0 to 24 months diagnosed with nonallergic atopic dermatitis.
The researchers found that children with smoking parents had significantly higher Scoring Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) scores than those with nonsmoking parents (33.42 versus 11.64). There was no significant association between maternal active smoking during pregnancy and disease severity.
Across prenatal passive smoke exposure-duration categories, SCORAD scores differed significantly, increasing from 19.42 among children with no prenatal exposure to 24.73, 28.49 and 38.74 among those exposed for one to two, two to four and more than four hours/day, respectively. There were also significant associations between paternal active smoking and paternal passive smoke exposure-duration categories and SCORAD scores. Both prenatal passive smoke exposure and postnatal household smoking were associated with significantly higher SCORAD scores.
“These findings highlight the importance of early preventive strategies and family-based smoking cessation interventions,” the authors write.
More information
Halil Alkaya et al., Association of passive tobacco smoke exposure on disease severity among children aged 0–2 years with non-allergic atopic dermatitis, Advances in Dermatology and Allergology (2026). DOI: 10.5114/ada.2026.164412
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Passive tobacco smoke exposure linked to nonallergic atopic dermatitis severity in young children (2026, October 29)
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