Title: Studying the Association of Adverse Mental Health Outcomes and Alopecia Areata in Racial and Ethnic Groups 

Author: Michael Freddy, BS and Carolyn Goh, MD

Area of Concentration (Petal): Basic, Clinical, Translational Research 

Specialty: Dermatology

Keywords: Alopecia Areata, Mental Health, Race and Ethnicity 

Background: Alopecia Areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by hair loss, ranging from a patchy distribution to complete hair loss. Studies have shown that women face greater challenges when dealing with hair loss compared to their male counterparts. This study looks to fill a gap in the literature featuring these associations in people from different Races and Ethnicities. 

Objective: We aim to identify if this Association occurs in some groups more than others and pursue further research/intervention to improve the disparity. 

Methods: This is a Quantitative research study of the NIH All of Us database with over 750,000 Participants across the United States. This research was conducted using tools provided by the All of Us database that filtered patient data into de-identified datasets used to select data of interest. 

Results: The following data is in the preliminary stages without statistical analysis. In total, 11,259 patients were identified that had a diagnosis of alopecia areata who were then further analyzed as having a concurrent diagnosis of depression or anxiety. Of the 58,617 patients with depression or anxiety, 4,275 were found to have both disease burdens of interest. These 4,275 patients were then separated by race and ethnicity to extrapolate data about our study. Of the 4,275 patients, whites made up 59%, Latino or Hispanic made up 19%, Black or African American made up 17%, and Asian/Other made up 2/3% respectively. 

Conclusions: At this time, we have raw data with no statistical significance, so no conclusions can be drawn. It is hypothesized that further analysis of the data will show that marginalized communities face a higher association of disease burden. The results will help educate providers to have a lower threshold to connect patients with higher associations to psychotherapy, psychiatry, and group support.