Prevalence of Onychomycosis in Patients Attending a Dermatology Clinic in Northeastern Ohio for Other Conditions

Abstract

Although effective therapies for nail fungal infections are now available, there have been no recent epidemiological surveys, to our knowledge, of onychomycosis in the United States. In a representative sample of 20 000 individuals aged 1 to 74 years in the northeastern United States in the late 1970s, the US Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found the overall prevalence of nail fungal infections to be 2.18%.¹More recently, population-based questionnaire surveys conducted in the United Kingdom²and Spain³found the overall prevalence of onychomycosis to be 2.7% (males, 2.8% and females, 2.6%) and 1.7% (males, 0.8% and females, 1.8%), respectively. Heikkila and Stubb⁴investigated 800 individuals aged 6 to 80 years in Finland. In contrast to the previously mentioned studies, individuals were examined by a dermatologist and the diagnosis was confirmed by a fungal culture positive for dermatophytes. This study's results yielded a higher onychomycosis prevalence of