Use of probiotics in children as prophylaxis for the development of atopic dermatitis: systematic review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.15944224030510

• Palavras-chave: Atopic Dermatitis. Probiotics. Prophylaxis. Systematic review.

• Keywords: Atopic Dermatitis. Probiotics. Prophylaxis. Systematic review.

• Abstract:

  (1) Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a disease with a low mortality rate, but which has a relevant impact on patients' health and quality of life. The use of probiotics, due to their possible immunomodulatory effect, has been studied as an alternative, both therapeutic and prophylactic, for AD.
  (2) Objectives: To synthesize the evidence regarding the effect of the use of probiotics by children up to 5 years of age, in relation to the incidence of atopic dermatitis in this population. (3) Methods: The systematic search for evidence was carried out on the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library platforms. The inclusion criteria for study selection were children up to 5 years of age with usual or high risk of developing AD. The intervention evaluated was the use of probiotics by this population, in the determined age group. (4) Results: 19 studies were selected, totaling 23,983 children who received probiotic supplementation as an intervention. Among the selected studies, six showed a protective effect. An RCT (Schmidt 2019) with 285 children found a lower incidence of AD in the intervention group (4.2%) when compared to the control group (11.5%). In contrast, the other 13 selected studies did not show a protective effect for AD. (5) Conclusions: In this systematic review, probiotic supplementation in the postnatal period for children up to 5 years old did not prove to be an intervention with a protective effect on the incidence of AD. Future studies are needed to evaluate both the subtypes of probiotics used and their use in periods different from those evaluated.