Scientific evidence on the benefits of moisturising creams
In 2017, a research team looked at all of the scientific evidence on moisturising creams. They wanted to see whether moisturising creams helped people’s eczema. The team looked at 77 different research studies from across the world. Moisturising creams had benefits for people with eczema. People in the research studies using moisturising creams had better eczema, felt less itchy, and were less likely to get a flare-up. These people also did not need to use as much flare control cream. People who used moisturising creams and flare control creams had better eczema than the people who just used flare control creams. The research did not find that one moisturising cream was better than another.
Research article: van Zuuren, E.J., Fedorowicz, Z., Christensen, R., Lavrijsen A.P., Arents, B.W. (2017) Emollients and moisturisers for eczema. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2.