Quality of life in patients with alopecia areata: a hospital-based cross-sectional study

Previous studies suggest that alopecia areata (AA) may significantly affect patient quality of life (QoL). There are no studies that assess QoL in Serbian AA patients.

This study aims to assess the impact of AA on patients' QoL in comparison to patients affected by other skin diseases and to determine the impact of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of AA patients on QoL.

A hospital-based cross-sectional study of 60 patients with AA was conducted at the Clinic of Dermatovenereology, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade between April 2012 and June 2013. The severity of hair loss was assessed using the Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT). Patients' self-assessment of QoL was measured by three self-administered questionnaires: The Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and The Skindex-29.

Sixty AA patients (16 males and 44 females) with mean age of 37.35 ± 14.26 years completed the questionnaires. We confirmed that QoL of our AA patients was impaired. Compared with patients suffering from psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and onychomycosis AA patients presented significantly better QoL. Severity of disease (SALT) correlated only with personal relationship - dimension of DLQI (ρ = 0.29, P < 0.05) and social functioning - dimension of Skindex (ρ = 0.26, P < 0.05). No correlation was observed between severity of the disease and SF-36 subscales. AA patients with depression had significantly worse QoL in daily activities, leisure, work or school and personal relationships - DLQI dimensions, and emotions and social functioning - Skindex subscales.

Our study demonstrates that AA influences QoL, but to a lesser degree than observed for psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and onychomycosis.