An epidemiological and clinical study of untreated patients with tinea pedis within a company in Japan.

In this study, we investigated epidemiological and clinical aspects of dermatophyte foot infections among employees of one dairy product company located in Kanagawa prefecture in central Japan. Sixty-nine of 377 subjects were reported having "athlete's foot" in response to a simple questionnaire. A subsequent mycological examination revealed 41 untreated patients with tinea pedis and/or tinea unguium (89% of subjects examined) and the overall prevalence was estimated at 18%. Comparing severity scores of five clinical symptoms (itching, erythema, vesicles/pustules, erosion/maceration, and scales) between those untreated patients within the subjects and another group of patients who spontaneously attended dermatological clinics to treat tinea pedis, itching, erythema, and total score were significantly higher in the latter group.