Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Mar 12, 2021)
Date Submitted: Jan 29, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Epidemiology and Disease Burden of Androgenetic Alopecia in Chinese Adolescents: a Population-based Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of hair loss and can onset at any age. It was reported to have a significant effect on health-related quality of life and psychological health. Reported prevalence rate is associated with multiple factors. However, these prevalence and disease burden in adolescents has not been explored.
Objective:
To evaluate the epidemiology and disease burden of AGA in Chinese adolescents.
Methods:
This population-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among 9227 freshmen of two comprehensive universities in two cities of China from September to October 2018. Dermatological examination was performed by certified dermatologists. Questionnaires covering basic issues, surrounding demographic information, history of diseases, etc. were completed online. Disease burden of AGA, including health-related quality of life, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and quality of sleep, was measured by EQ-5D-3L, PHQ-2, GAD-2 and PSQI. Meanwhile, 45 adolescents AGA patients visiting Xiangya hospital were enrolled as clinic AGA group for comparison of disease burden.
Results:
The prevalence of AGA in Chinese adolescents was 5.3/1000. Male was significantly associated with higher prevalence of AGA (7.9/1000, P<0.01). Female was associated with lower risk of AGA (OR=0.29, P=0.002). There was no significant association between BMI and AGA, nor predilection in different nationality. Annual household income or parental highest educational level exerted no influence on the prevalence of AGA. Rosacea (OR=3.22, P=0.019) was significantly associated with higher prevalence of AGA while acne seemed no association. The scores of EQ-5D, GAD-2, PHQ-2 and PSQI were not significantly different between students with and without AGA. However, the GAD-2, PHQ-2 and PSQI of clinic adolescent AGA patients were significantly higher than college patients.
Conclusions:
The onset of AGA in Chinese college students differs between genders and was significantly associated with rosacea. Clinic AGA patients suffered from significant heavier disease burden compared to college AGA patients.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.