Beyond Health-Related Quality of Life: Initial Psychometric Validation of a New Scale for Addressing the Gap in Assessing the Full Range of Alopecia Areata Psychosocial Burden

The study aimed to develop and validate a new scale, the Scale of Alopecia Areata Distress (SAAD), to measure the psychosocial burden of alopecia areata (AA) beyond existing health-related quality of life measures. A pool of 144 items was refined to 122 and administered to 392 adult AA patients in the USA. Through data analysis, a 41-item scale with seven factors—Emotional and Cognitive Functioning, Romantic Relationships, Family Relationships, Primary Life Responsibilities, Non-Primary Life Responsibility Activities, Stigma, and Self-Perception Change—was identified. Each factor showed acceptable to high internal consistency reliability. The SAAD-41 scale shows promise as a comprehensive tool for assessing AA-related psychosocial distress, though further validation is necessary.