TOPLINE:

Among patients with new-onset urticaria, 75% recovered within a week, whereas 17% progressed to chronic urticaria, and higher age at onset, elevated BMI, and early prednisolone use were associated with the development of chronic urticaria.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analyzed data of 16,892 patients (mean age, 30 years; 62% women) with new-onset urticaria from a Dutch database between 2010 and 2020 to examine disease duration patterns and potential determinants of chronic urticaria.
• Patients were classified as having acute urticaria if the time between the first and last consultation was 6 weeks or less and as having chronic urticaria if consultations were more than 6 weeks apart.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 75% of patients experienced urticaria lasting less than 1 week, and 83% were classified as having acute urticaria.
• Chronic urticaria developed in 17% of patients, with a median illness duration of 1 year and a median of four primary care visits for urticaria.
• Higher age at urticaria onset (log-transformed adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.15; 95% CI, 1.10-1.19), BMI ≥ 25 (aOR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.20-1.56), and prednisolone use within the first week (aOR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.06-1.83) were associated with the development of chronic urticaria.

IN PRACTICE:

“This large primary care-based study provides valuable insights into the course of urticaria in an unselected population, demonstrating that most patients recover quickly within 1 week, while a notable 17% develop chronic urticaria,” the authors wrote. “In patients with symptoms persisting beyond 1 week and presenting with the found early determinants of CU [chronic urticaria], a more proactive approach may be considered, as well as timely treatment escalation, referral, and expectation management,” they added.

SOURCE:

Reineke Soegiharto, with Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on October 30, 2025, in Clinical & Experimental Allergy. 

LIMITATIONS:

This study was limited by its reliance solely on general practitioner consultation data (excluding self-managed cases), the absence of diagnostic codes to distinguish acute from chronic urticaria, and the inability of the International Classification of Primary Care to differentiate spontaneous from inducible urticaria.

DISCLOSURES:

Several authors reported receiving institutional sponsorship for research or consultancy, research funding, speaker fees, and reimbursement for attending or chairing a symposium from or serving as members advisory boards for various pharmaceutical companies.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.