Gender differences in vitiligo: psychological symptoms and quality of life assessment description

Tonia Samela; Walter Malorni; Paola Matarrese; Gianfranco Mattia; Stefania Alfani; Damiano Abeni

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1234734

Gender differences in vitiligo: psychological symptoms and quality of life assessment description

Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 20:14:1234734. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1234734. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Tonia Samela^{1

2}, Walter Malorni³, Paola Matarrese⁴, Gianfranco Mattia⁴, Stefania Alfani², Damiano Abeni²

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Psychology Unit, Istituto Dermopatico Dell'Immacolata, (IDI) IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
² Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Istituto Dermopatico Dell'Immacolata, (IDI) IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
³ Center for Global Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.
⁴ Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Objective: Assuming that the difference exist in the manifestation of psychological suffering among genders, the purpose of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on gender differences in vitiligo quality of life and psychological assessment.

Methods: We searched in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for original articles in English language. Results were screened according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA checklist).

Results: The study yielded 107 results; 12 articles have been evaluated as eligible. Each eligible study has been screened and analyzed. The study's qualitative evaluation revealed that 8 papers were classifiable as satisfactory, 4 were classifiable as unsatisfactory. The agreement between the coders was high (% agreement = 84.6%; Cohen's kappa = 0.79). All considered researches (100%) were cross-sectional studies, based on self-report questionnaires. From our analysis, women with vitiligo had a higher risk to experience lower quality of life, and worse mental health in a wide range of psychopathology symptoms than men. A wide heterogeneity of tools is used to investigate the quality of life and psychological symptoms among these patients.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, there are few explanatory models proposed in the literature to rationalize these findings. It will be important to investigate in further researches the specific influence of known risk factors for psychopathology in this population to better explore these phenomena.

Keywords: gender differences; literature review; psycho-dermatology; psychology assessment; quality of life assessment; skin disease; vitiligo.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported in part by funds from the “Progetto Ricerca Corrente 2022-Progetto 4.2” of the Italian Ministry of Health, Rome, Italy.