Eczema Bathing Study – What did we find out?
Have you ever wondered how often to have a bath or shower when you have eczema?
People in our eczema research community wanted to find out. So, we ran the Eczema Bathing Study. This was designed by people with eczema, healthcare professionals and researchers.
The study compared:
- Daily bathing – having a bath or shower 6 or more times a week
- Weekly bathing – having a bath or shower 1 or 2 times a week
Participants in the study followed either the Daily Bathing pattern or the Weekly Bathing pattern.
Video explaining the results of the study
They did this for four weeks. You can see what daily bathing involved here and weekly bathing here. People taking part didn’t change their usual eczema treatments, such as using moisturisers after bathing.
Why was this important?
People often have questions about how best to bathe with eczema. This has been identified as a priority research question for many years. Until now, no good studies had been done to answer it.
Because of the limited evidence, people are often given different advice from different people. This can be very confusing and frustrating for people living with eczema.
What did the study find out?
Our study involved 438 people with eczema. This included both adults and children with eczema. They recorded their eczema symptoms weekly during the study.
Everyone was put into one of the two groups at random, so it was a fair test. The two groups of people were as similar as possible.
Overall, we found that it made no difference to eczema symptoms if people bathed weekly or daily.
This is great news for people living with eczema. It means that you can do whatever suits you. As one participant put it, people with eczema now have the freedom to choose how often to bathe.
For further details about the study results please see the participants’ newsletter:
Parent of children with eczema.
Adult with eczema
Dermatologist
A huge thank you.
The volunteers who took part in this study really tried hard to follow the study instructions.
Most people had a bath or shower as they were asked to do. They also provided lots of information in the weekly questionnaires.
Lots of people also said that they enjoyed being a part of this study.
What happens next?
This study was only possible because of the dedication and enthusiasm of everyone in our eczema research community.
Please do share these results with your family, friends and healthcare professionals. We want as many people as possible to benefit from these results.
Now, “how often to have a bath or shower” is one less thing for people with eczema to worry about.
We have updated the guidance available in Eczema Care Online to include these results. The Eczema Bathing Study is the first trial to be completed through the Rapid Eczema Trials project. We have new studies in development and will be looking for people to take part soon.
Do sign up and become part of our community:
Bathing Blogs and Stories:
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