Lack of Evidence of COVID-19 Being a Risk Factor of Alopecia Areata: Results of a National Cohort Study in South Korea

Jeehyun Kim; Kwan Hong; Raquel Elizabeth Gómez Gómez; Soojin Kim; Byung Chul Chun

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.758069

Lack of Evidence of COVID-19 Being a Risk Factor of Alopecia Areata: Results of a National Cohort Study in South Korea

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Oct 13:8:758069. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.758069. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jeehyun Kim^{1

2

3}, Kwan Hong^{1

2}, Raquel Elizabeth Gómez Gómez^{1

2}, Soojin Kim^{1

2

3}, Byung Chul Chun^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Public Health, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
² Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
³ Transdisciplinary Major in Learning Health Systems, Department of Healthcare Sciences, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.

Abstract

Background: Concerns about alopecia areata (AA) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have emerged among dermatologists. However, most of the extant kinds of literature have limited implications by relying on cross-sectional studies with restricted study subjects without the control group. Objective: Our study aims to investigate the risk of developing AA among COVID-19 patients in South Korea using national representative data. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance Service COVID-19 cohort database, comprising COVID-19 patients and the control group, all of whom were diagnosed from January 1, 2020, to June 4, 2020. Patients were defined as individuals who were confirmed as COVID-19 positive, regardless of disease severity. Controls were defined as those who were confirmed as COVID-19 negatives. People with a history of AA during the period 2015-2019 were excluded. The primary endpoint was a new diagnosis of AA (ICD-10-Code: L63). The adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) of developing AA was estimated using a log-link Poisson regression model based on incidence density. The model adjusted for (1) age and sex and (2) demographic variables (age, sex, place of residence, and income level). Results: A total of 226,737 individuals (7,958 [3.5%] cases and 218,779 [96.5%] controls) were included in the final analysis. The ratio of newly diagnosed AA was 18/7,958 (0.2%) in cases and 195/218,779 (0.1%) in controls. IRRs of COVID-19 patients having newly diagnosed AA compared to controls were 0.78 (95% CI: 0.48-1.27) when age and sex were adjusted for and 0.60 (95% CI: 0.35-1.03) when all demographic variables were adjusted for. Conclusion: Diagnosis of COVID-19 was not significantly associated with the development of AA even after appropriately adjusting for covariates.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; alopecia areata; cohort study; complications.