The age of onset of FFA may be decreasing
Frontal fibrosing alopecia is a scarring alopecia that is increasing worldwide. Some have referred to the increasing rates as an epidemic. It has been proposed that not only are rates of FFA increasing, but the age of women at the time of diagnosis may be decreasing.
Rosales Santillan et al. 2022
Authors of a new study set out to evaluate whether women presenting to clinic with a new diagnosis of FFA are in fact younger than they were years ago. With ethics approval, a retrospective review of patients seen in the Hair Clinic at Boston Medical Center was undertaken to further investigate the age at which patients were presenting with FFA.
Patients diagnosed with FFA from 2005 to 2019 were tabulated, and patient data from 2012 to 2019 were reviewed including patient sex, age at time of initial visit, and estimated age at disease onset.
Data was available on 292 patients. 96.6 % were female. Age at time of visit ranged from 24 to 84 years, and estimated age of disease onset ranged from 17 to 81 years. Both decreased over time, but neither achieved statistical significance. However, the age of the youngest patient presenting annually significantly decreased over time.
