Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Maintain Skin Barrier with Daily Emollients: Regular (at least twice daily) application of fragrance-free emollients is a cornerstone of eczema management. Emollients support the skin barrier, reduce water loss, and are associated with fewer and milder flares and less need for topical steroids. Apply generously, including right after bathing to lock in moisture; ointments and thicker creams hold moisture better than lotions. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Identify and Avoid Personal Triggers: Common triggers include harsh soaps, hot water, wool clothing, low humidity, dust mites, pet dander, and emotional stress. Keeping an eczema diary can help identify individual triggers. Use fragrance-free, hypoallergenic products for skin and laundry. Maintain comfortable indoor humidity (40-60%). National Eczema Association
Watch for Signs of Infection: Eczema-affected skin is frequently colonised by Staphylococcus aureus, which is associated with worse inflammation. Keeping nails short limits the damage scratching does. Increasing redness, warmth, crusting or weeping are signs of infection and are worth getting looked at promptly rather than waiting out. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (meta-analysis)
Know What the Evidence Says About Prevention: It was once hoped that applying emollients to high-risk newborns would prevent eczema, but the large BEEP and PreventADALL randomized trials found no preventive benefit, and BEEP reported a possible increase in skin infections - so routine emollient use is not recommended to prevent eczema. There is stronger, separate evidence that early introduction of allergenic foods such as peanut can reduce food-allergy risk; discuss timing with a pediatrician. The Lancet (BEEP trial)
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 75% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Elmose & Thomsen 2015, J Allergy
Background and further reading
Eczema (atopic dermatitis) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory skin diseases. Estimates vary by region and method, but it affects on the order of 15-20% of children and a smaller share of adults - a global meta-analysis put adult point prevalence at around 6% [1]. It causes intensely itchy, dry, red, inflamed patches of skin that can crack, weep, and become secondarily infected. Eczema often appears in infancy and is frequently the first step in the 'atopic march,' a tendency to go on to develop food allergies, asthma, and allergic rhinitis. Many children improve as they grow, but a meaningful proportion continue to have symptoms into adulthood [2].
Genetic Basis: Twin studies estimate eczema heritability at roughly 75% (commonly cited as 70-80%), making it one of the more heritable common conditions [3]. The strongest and best-replicated genetic risk factor is loss-of-function variants in FLG (filaggrin), a protein essential to the skin barrier. These null variants are carried by about 9% of people of European ancestry, are over-represented among patients, and are linked to earlier onset and more severe, persistent disease [4]. A defective barrier lets more water escape and more allergens and microbes in. Beyond filaggrin, a large multi-ancestry GWAS by Paternoster and colleagues brought the count of robustly associated loci to 31, implicating type-2 (Th2) immune signaling and innate immune and epidermal-barrier genes [5]; more recent multi-ancestry meta-analyses have extended this further [6].
Environmental Triggers: Despite high heritability, environmental factors strongly shape whether and how eczema flares. Common aggravators include dry or cold conditions, harsh soaps and detergents, allergens (dust mites, pet dander, pollen), and stress; Staphylococcus aureus colonization is associated with worse disease. The 'hygiene hypothesis' proposes that reduced microbial exposure in early life may favor allergic sensitization, though the evidence is associational. One widely held idea - that applying emollients to high-risk newborns prevents eczema - has not held up: the large BEEP and PreventADALL randomized trials found no preventive benefit, and BEEP saw a possible increase in skin infections [7]. Emollients remain valuable for treating established eczema, but the case for using them to prevent it is not supported.
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
7 published scores from 1 study
The eczema score combines 7 polygenic scores drawn from 1 published study.
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Crohn's Disease: Chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the digestive tract lining.
Content updated August 2026.
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