LEO Pharma, Allergy UK and Expert Taskforce Uncover the Real Burden of Living with Chronic Hand Eczema (CHE) in New Report

This research was initiated, funded, and written by LEO Pharma UK. Allergy UK and UK healthcare professionals reviewed and contributed into the research and report. Allergy UK is working in collaboration with LEO Pharma to share the outputs of this report to improve healthcare support for people living with Chronic Hand Eczema.

• To explore the impact that CHE has on people’s lives, a multi-disciplinary taskforce was created. This taskforce was initiated and funded by LEO Pharma and included representation from primary care, secondary care, and the charity Allergy UK.
• LEO Pharma can now reveal new insights on the real impact of living with CHE in the UK. The research builds on responses from 152 people and uncovers the significant physical and emotional impact, with CHE negatively affecting quality of life, work, and relationships.¹
• The report highlights a gap in the support available for those living with CHE, particularly in terms of their emotional wellbeing, with half suffering from anxiety or anger yet only 14% have ever been asked about their emotional wellbeing by any HCP. ¹

Maidenhead, Berkshire, United Kingdom, 03 July 2024 – LEO Pharma UK & Ireland, a leader in medical dermatology, today launches ‘‘The Chronic Hand Eczema Patient Impact Report,” to highlight the lived experience of those with CHE in the UK. Historically, disease management for this condition is often overlooked and under-appreciated when compared to other skin conditions.^2,3

Hand eczema is a painful, pruritic, inflammatory, and heterogenous skin disease on the hands and wrists.^4,5,6 Hand Eczema becomes CHE when it lasts for more than three months, or relapses twice or more often per year.^4,7

The research was designed with input from the charity Allergy UK and a multi-disciplinary taskforce, including healthcare experts Prof. Anthony Bewley, Dr. Alia Ahmed, Dr. Angelika Razzaque and Margaret Kelman.

152 people living with CHE in the UK were surveyed to understand their experiences across five key areas, including physical experience and unavoidable triggers, quality of life and relationships, psychosocial impact, impact on work and their experience engaging with healthcare professionals for their condition.

Key insights from people living with CHE show:¹

• 3/4 strongly agree that having eczema on their hands is harder than the rest of the body because they’re in constant use.
• Half have experienced anxiety or anger due to their CHE, yet only 14% have been asked about the emotional impact by any healthcare professional.
• 7 out of 10 shared their CHE has some impact on their existing relationships or ability to build new ones.
• Around half said their CHE had some influence on their career choice and yet 72% state that they currently experience some impact on their work or education due to their CHE.
• People experience CHE for a median of 8 years prior to seeing an HCP for the first time, with the most common reason for this delay was that they didn’t think it was severe enough.

The report findings identify a need for greater education for HCPs regarding the impact on people living with CHE and more support for people living with suspected CHE, to seek healthcare support earlier.

One CHE patient in the research shared: “Even though I’m quite a confident person, it’s anxiety inducing to have my hand eczema visible as most don’t ask me what it is, they assume I’m unclean or unmoisturised. Which is not true. A lot of judgement without asking.”

“Patients are telling us quite clearly that we as health care professionals are not prioritising the effective management of CHE highly enough. The finding that the median time of 8 years for patients with chronic hand eczema to access help is shocking.” shares Prof. Anthony Bewley, Consultant Dermatologist at Barts Health NHS Trust. “This research report tells us that CHE is a really debilitating disease. It’s not just the horrible itch and pain, nor also the awful effects on quality of life, but it is also the dreadful consequences to patients’ psychological wellbeing which can be persistent and disabling.”

“Ensuring there is a well-rounded and holistic understanding of what it is like to have CHE, is a vital first step in delivering the healthcare support patients with CHE need, so patient outcomes are improved. For too long, much of the focus of support has been biased towards the physiological impact of living CHE. It is encouraging that there is now some powerful research pointing to the importance of understanding the psychological impact too. We are hopeful this will help to redress the balance of support available to this patient group,” said Simone Miles, Chief Executive Officer, Allergy UK.

The full report can be found on the LEO Pharma UKIE website and is available to download here.