Disease-specific quality of life and potential  contributing factors in different subgroups of  objective and subjective severity of Alopecia Areata

Alopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease affecting the hair follicles resulting in irregular hair loss. The severity and unpredictability of the condition could lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of control, resulting in a decreasing quality of life. Until now no disease-specific psychological interventions exist for patients with AA. Therefore this study looked into potential contributing factors that could be implemented to improve the disease-specific quality of life of patients with AA. A questionnaire on demographic and disease-related factors was sent to Dutch Alopecia Association members. A total of 271 participants were placed in one of four subgroups based on their combination of high vs low objective and subjective AA severity; all subgroups contained ≥ 37 participants. Results showed that diseasespecific quality of life was highest in patients with a mild subjective AA condition, regardless the objective severity of the condition. Potential contributing...Show moreAlopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease affecting the hair follicles resulting in irregular hair loss. The severity and unpredictability of the condition could lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of control, resulting in a decreasing quality of life. Until now no disease-specific psychological interventions exist for patients with AA. Therefore this study looked into potential contributing factors that could be implemented to improve the disease-specific quality of life of patients with AA. A questionnaire on demographic and disease-related factors was sent to Dutch Alopecia Association members. A total of 271 participants were placed in one of four subgroups based on their combination of high vs low objective and subjective AA severity; all subgroups contained ≥ 37 participants. Results showed that diseasespecific quality of life was highest in patients with a mild subjective AA condition, regardless the objective severity of the condition. Potential contributing factors related to a lower disease-specific quality of life for patients with AA were more stigmatization, fear of negative evaluation, and helplessness, and less acceptance; no major differences in contributing factors between the subgroups were found. This study signifies the importance of subjective over objective disease severity related to disease-specific quality of life in patients with AA. More research is needed on the causal relationship between disease-specific quality of life and these factors. Nevertheless, the results of this study suggest that subjective severity of AA, stigmatization, helplessness, fear of negative evaluation, and acceptance could be considered as potential contributing factors to disease-specific quality of life.Show less

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Disease-specific quality of life and potential contributing factors in different subgroups of objective and subjective severity of Alopecia Areata