Efficacy of probiotics in pediatric atopic dermatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a prevailing skin disease in childhood. Several studies have appraised probiotics as a strategy for treating AD. We aimed to assess the validity of probiotics in the treatment of AD in children.

Methods

We systematically searched the PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, EBSCO, Web of Science and Cochrane library databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the effect of probiotic treatment on SCORAD value in pediatric patients with AD compared with a placebo group between 1 January 2010 and 1 January 2023. The risk of bias and the certainty of evidence were assessed using Cochrane ROB 2.0.

Results

A total of 10 outcomes from 9 RCTs involving 1000 patients were included. Three of these outcomes were analyzed as dichotomous variables in 373 patients. The other seven were analyzed for continuous variables in 627 patients. A meta-analysis of the random-effect model of the dichotomous variables demonstrated no significant difference between the probiotic and control groups [OR = 1.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.70, 4.35), p = 0.23, I² = 68%]. A meta-analysis of the random-effect model of continuous variables demonstrated significant differences between the probiotic and control groups [MD = −4.24, 95% CI (−7.78, −0.71), p = 0.002, I² = 71%]. Subgroup analysis of continuous variables showed that the effects of children's age, treatment duration and probiotic species on the SCORAD value were not statistically significant.

Conclusion

Evidence on the improvement effect of probiotics on pediatric patients with AD is limited. This study showed that single-strain probiotic treatment exerts a positive effect on AD. Restricted to the quantity and quality of incorporated studies, these conclusions have yet to be validated by high-quality studies.