# Atopic dermatitis in an urban adult population: identifying the role of social and environmental factors

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2022 · $717,605

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common, chronic inflammatory disease of the skin that affects 10% of adults. AD is
associated with major health-related quality-of-life (QoL) and psychosocial impairments that exceed those of
other serious chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. Despite the major physical
and emotional burdens that accompany AD, it remains an understudied skin disease among adults because,
until recently, AD had been incorrectly considered a childhood disease that remits in adulthood. Importantly,
our preliminary data reveal racial/ethnic differences in the severity of, QoL impact of, and health care utilization
for AD that suggest the presence of disparities in AD outcomes that deserve further study. Considering the
anticipated diversification of the U.S. population, such disparities are only expected to worsen if left
unaddressed. However, a critical barrier to identifying, understanding, and ultimately eliminating racial/ethnic
disparities in AD outcomes among adults exists due to the lack of adult AD cohorts with sufficient racial/ethnic
diversity and individual-level social and environmental contextual data that are necessary to comprehensively
evaluate the causes of such disparities. In order to address this barrier, we propose to create a cohort of
racially and ethnically diverse adults with AD within the socioeconomically disadvantaged and medically
underserved, urban neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. North Philadelphia adult residents
represent a population that is vulnerable to a large burden of AD. With this cohort, we aim to perform a
longitudinal cohort study to: i) confirm and further characterize existing racial/ethnic disparities in AD outcomes
and health care utilization for AD among adults, and ii) identify the individual behavioral, social, and
environmental contextual factors that simultaneously contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in AD outcomes. We
will address these aims utilizing a novel transdisciplinary approach and a sequential mixed methods study
design in order to incorporate the lived experience of adults with AD in our studies. We hypothesize that
specific and potentially modifiable behavioral, social, and environmental factors contribute to racial/ethnic
disparities in AD outcomes. The new knowledge that will be gained from the proposed work is essential to
informing future individual- and community-level interventions to reduce racial/ethnic disparities and improve
AD outcomes among similar urban adult populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10340831
- **Project number:** 1R01AR080039-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Junko Takeshita
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $717,605
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-07-01 → 2027-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10340831

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10340831, Atopic dermatitis in an urban adult population: identifying the role of social and environmental factors (1R01AR080039-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10340831. Licensed CC0.

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