Global, regional and national burden of alopecia areata and its associated diseases, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background No study to date has concomitantly reported the global burden of alopecia areata (AA) and its associated diseases. Methods The crude and age‐standardized rates of prevalence (ASPR), incidence (ASIR) and years lived with disability (YLDs) of AA were extracted from the global burden of disease, injuries and risk factors study (GBD) database between 1990 and 2019 for 204 countries and territories. We stratified the analysis by global region, nation, sex, age and sociodemographic index (SDI) to dissect the epidemiology of AA and its associated diseases. Results Alopecia areata was responsible for 0.024% of the total DALYs. Age‐standardized DALYs rate of AA was 7.51 [4.73–11.14] per 100,000. Overall ASPR, ASIR and age‐standardized YLDs rates were stable from 1990 to 2019 globally. All three rates were about two times higher in females compared to males and had a bimodal distribution with peaks at age 30–34 years and 60–64 years. AA burden was positively correlated with SDI (r = .375, p