Association of Premature Hair Graying with Family History, Smoking, and Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Study

The 2015 cross-sectional study involving 6390 young Korean men under 30 years old found that premature hair graying (PHG) was significantly associated with family history, obesity, and smoking. Specifically, having a family history of PHG increased the odds of experiencing PHG by 12.82 times, obesity by 2.61 times, and a history of smoking more than 5 pack-years by 1.61 times. The severity of PHG was also correlated with family history and obesity. The study highlighted the importance of these factors in PHG among young men, but it had limitations such as potential recall bias, exclusion of women, limited generalizability, and inability to establish causality.