Warts, swimming-pool and atopy: a case-control study performed in a private dermatologic practice.

Objective. Our purpose was to study two risk factors of warts, i.e., swimmi ng pool frequentation and atopy. Patients and methods. A case-control study was performed in Four dermatolog ists' private offices. The cases were patients consulting for the first tim e for warts; the controls were patients consulting for the first lime for a cne. Results, Univariate analysis performed in 153 questionnaires (including 86 cases and 67 controls) showed an association between warts with swimming po ol frequentation one year before consulting and between warts and history o f atopy. Multivariate analysis showed an association between warts and hist ory of atopy (OR: 4.20; confidence interval at 95 p. 100 = (1.52-11.6)). Th e link between warts and frequentation of swimming pool one year before is not significant (OR: 1.81; confidence interval at 95 p. 100 = (0.78-4.21)) but shows a tendency. Discussion. This last point should be confirmed in further studies. Additio nally, this study showed that this kind of clinical research can be carried out in dermatologist private practice.