What Do You Call It? Atopic Dermatitis or Eczema?
Atopic dermatitis? Or eczema? In an effort to better understand our community, we want to know - how do you refer to the itchy, dry skin condition? We found that a fair amount of you refer to it as "atopic dermatitis," however most people use the term "eczema."
What is the difference between atopic dermatitis and eczema?
Atopic dermatitis is the most common type of eczema. Because of this, the terms "atopic dermatitis" and "eczema" are often used interchangeably. It is helpful to think of eczema as an umbrella term that is commonly used to refer to atopic dermatitis and the other types of dermatitis.
Many people refer to it as "atopic dermatitis", "atopic eczema" or just “eczema”. Some may even refer to the condition as “AD” or “dermatitis” for short.
Most people say "eczema"
We conducted a series of polls on our website and social media, totaling nearly 300 responses. The results were surprisingly consistent across channels. Here's what you had to say!
In our Facebook poll, 65% of you call it "eczema."
On Instagram stories and FB stories, of every 10 poll respondents, 6 say "eczema."
In our Twitter poll, the majority of respondents also say "eczema" over "atopic dermatitis."
What do you call it?
— AtopicDermatitis.net (@AtopicDerm_HU) March 26, 2020
The verdict?
After totaling the poll results, we found that 63% of respondents say they call it "eczema" while 37% call it "atopic dermatitis."
This reaffirms the idea that the term, "eczema" is more widely used and recognized by the general population.
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