Race and Alopecia Areata Amongst US Women
January 2018
in “
Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings
”
TLDR Black and Hispanic women are more likely to have alopecia areata than white women.
This study investigated racial disparities in the incidence of alopecia areata (AA) among US women using data from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII). Among 63,960 women in NHS and 88,368 women in NHSII, 418 and 738 cases of AA were identified, respectively. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratio for AA was 2.72 for black women compared to white women in NHS, and 5.48 in NHSII. Additionally, Hispanic women in NHSII had a multivariate odds ratio of 1.94 compared to non-Hispanic white women. The study concluded that black and Hispanic women had higher odds of AA compared to white women, suggesting a racial disparity that warrants further investigation.