Quality of Life in Alopecia Areata: A Case-Control Study

BACKGROUND: Although alopecia areata (AA) is typically seen by medical staff as a benign, not life-threatening cosmetic disease, some studies have found significant impairment in quality of life (QL) in AA patients. There are no studies that assess QL in Brazilian AA patients. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate QL in AA patients, using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). The most affected SF-36 dimensions were compared to two culturally different AA QL studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a case-control study with 37 AA patients and 49 age- and sex-matched volunteer blood donors. The results of a Turkish and a French study were compared to our results. RESULTS: The dimensions social functioning (P = 0,001), role emotional (P = 0,019), and mental health (P = 0,000) scored statistically lower in the AA group in relation to controls, suggesting a worse QL. Incomparison to the Turkish and French studies, we found: (1) On the dimension role emotional, QL was equally impaired; (2) on the dimension social functioning, it was not different than the Turkish study; (3) social life of French AA patients was more affected; and (4) vitality and mental health dimensions were significantly more affected in French and Turkish patients. CONCLUSIONS: Impairment in QL in AA patients affected psychological, emotional, and social aspects of theirlives. Despite the scores of SF-36 dimensions varied significantly among different cultural groups, impairment of QL was found in all three studies; thus, we can suppose that these findings are not linked to a specific culture.