Defining digital measurement of scratching during sleep, or “Nocturnal Scratch”: A review of the Literature

Atopic dermatitis affects up to 2.4% of the world’s population, with nighttime scratching being a predominant and burdensome symptom for patients. This publication details DiMe’s systematic literature review to standardize nocturnal, scratch, and itch definitions as part of our work to drive the adoption of nocturnal scratch as a digital endpoint for atopic dermatitis.

Digital sensing solutions can assess the severity of atopic dermatitis symptoms, mainly scratching at night. Prior to DiMe’s work, a lack of understanding of this disease has made it difficult to compare which digital sensing solutions are best fit to measure these symptoms. Now, with the proper knowledge of this disease and a shared understanding of its definitions, clinical researchers and drug developers can collect essential information about patients’ nighttime scratching and measure and quantify this behavior in real-time using the correct digital tools and sensor-generated data.

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