Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of alopecia areata in a tertiary care center in Western Odisha

Abstract

Alpoecia areata is a common autoimmune disease often presenting with patchy areas of hair loss. Personal or family history of atopy and presence of other autoimmune diseases are often associated with this condition. The present study was conducted with the objective of finding the epidemiological factors, clinical patterns and associated comorbidities associated with alopecia areata. It was a single centre, hospital based cross sectional study undertaken between the period March 2017 to March 2020. Clinically diagnosed cases of alopecia areata were included in the study. Epidemiological data such as age, gender, locality, educational status and occupation were taken into consideration. Various clinical patterns such as patchy area of hair loss and more severe variants such as alopecia totalis, alopecia universalis etc were noted. The data were obtained through pre-structured questionnaire, findings of clinical examination and laboratory data.A total of 531 cases of clinically diagnosed alopecia areata were included with an overall prevalence of 4.1%. The mean age at onset was 27.4 ± 12.92 years. Males outnumbered females (1.31:1). Salaried persons (34.08%) belonging to upper socioeconomic status (31.6%) were predominantly affected. Hypothyroidism 29(5.46%) and bronchial asthma 14(2.6%) were the most common comorbidities. Educated, employed persons in the urban area are more susceptible to develop alopecia areata. Comorbidities like thyroid dysfunction, bronchial asthma and diabetes mellitus must be looked for in all such cases.