The study was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme and led by the University of Southampton in partnership with the University of Bristol's Centre for Academic Primary Care, Cardiff University and the University of Nottingham.
482 children from 96 general practices took part, making it by far the largest trial of emollient bath additives to date. Children were randomly allocated to two groups: one group was asked to use bath additives for a whole year and the other was asked not to use them for a whole year. Families completed short questionnaires weekly for the first 16 weeks, then every 4 weeks from 16 to 52 weeks.
There was no meaningful difference in eczema severity between the groups over the year. There was also no difference in the number of problems experienced with bathing, like stinging or redness following the bath, which affected a third of children in both groups.
Families of children with eczema are advised to continue to use leave-on emollient moisturisers and to avoid soap. This research has shown that pouring emollient bath additives into the bath water is very unlikely to offer extra benefit.
Watch a short summary here: https://youtu.be/tpgnNOhXgl8
Visit the study website: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/bathe
Paper:
Emollient bath additives for the treatment of childhood eczema (BATHE): multicentre pragmatic parallel group randomised controlled trial of clinical and cost effectiveness by Miriam Santer, Matthew J Ridd, Nick A Francis, Beth Stuart, Kate Rumsby, Maria Chorozoglou, Taeko Becque, Amanda Roberts, Lyn Liddiard, Claire Nollett, Julie Hooper, Martina Prude, Wendy Wood, Kim S Thomas, Emma Thomas-Jones, Hywel C Williams, Paul Little. BMJ. May 2018.
BMJ Editorial: New evidence challenges use of bath emollients for children with eczema
BMJ Opinion: Miriam Santer: Patient and carer choice in emollients for eczema treatment is crucial