Quality of Life in Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia — Donovan Hair Clinic
CCCA impacts health related quality of life.
A new study set out to better evaluate the effect of CCCA on quality of life. 56 patients with CCCA were surveyed. 98 % were women.
CCCA was found to impact quality of life in various domains including subjective symptoms and objectives signs and to a lesser extent an impact on relationships.
Subjective symptoms included feeling sad, worrying about having this problem, worrying it might spread. Objective signs included noticing the scalp was visible and losing hair when shampooing. Relationship issues were less prevalent but included issues such as feeling embarrassed around others, having to explain to others what is wrong, feeling that others will notice the hair problem.
The authors found that subjective symptoms and objective symptoms were impacted the most. There were somewhat low number of negative responses within the ‘relationship issues’ category indicating that this may have had a had a protective effect against worsening CCCA-QLI among this particular study population. The authors propose that there may be a role that that individual connections and larger communities play in mitigating the negative effects of this condition.
Conclusions
Overall, the authors conclude that this study demonstrates that CCCA has a significant negative impact on health related quality of life, and that dermatologists caring for patients with CCCA should remain sensitive to the emotional and psychological toll this diagnosis has on patients. In addition, it’s critically important for practitioners to provide appropriate resources to better support patients with this diagnosis.
REFERENCE
Maranga et al. Quality of life in patients with central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia: a preliminary study. Br J Dermatol. 2022 Jun 15.