Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated With the Occurrence of Autoimmune Diseases in Patients With Alopecia Areata
September 2021
in “
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
”
TLDR Alopecia areata patients often have other autoimmune diseases, especially women with nail issues or atopic diseases.
This study investigated the prevalence and risk factors for autoimmune disease (AD) comorbidities in patients with alopecia areata (AA). Among 615 AA patients, 76 (12.4%) had comorbid ADs, with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) being the most common (6.8%), followed by vitiligo (2.4%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (2.0%). The study found that female sex, nail abnormalities, and atopic diseases were significantly associated with coexisting ADs. Specifically, nail abnormalities were linked to AITD, atopic diseases predicted vitiligo, and female sex and family history of AD were predictors of SLE. The findings suggested that screening for these factors could help identify AA patients at risk for AD comorbidities.