The Incidence of Alopecia Areata in a COVID-19-Vaccinated Population: A Single-Center Review.

Abstract

Background Cases of alopecia areata (AA) attributed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination have been reported in recent literature. However, these reports are reflective of specific geographic areas, and whether this phenomenon is observed in other regions remains to be investigated. This study focused on the association between AA and COVID-19 vaccination among patients from a large single-center safety net hospital in California. Methodology In this study, using electronic health records of patients and publicly available vaccination data, the demographics of patients including age group, sex, and race along with the vaccination status were carefully reviewed. Results A total of 73 cases of AA in the period from the release of the COVID-19 vaccination on December 17, 2020, to February 10, 2023, were identified. The odds ratios (ORs) for developing AA among the vaccinated and unvaccinated for each demographic level were calculated. Among all vaccinated individuals, the OR for developing AA was 0.58 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.35-0.94, p-value = 0.02). Conclusions This investigation noted no apparent increase in the incidence of AA among the vaccinated population compared to the unvaccinated population.