Original articleEpidemiology of alopecia areata, ophiasis, totalis, and universalis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Section snippets
Literature search
The following databases were searched for articles up to September 1, 2018: Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (PubMed and Ovid), Embase, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), and Scopus. The search strategy was modified from a previous Cochrane review6 to include search terms related to AA, AO, AT, and AU (Supplemental Table I; available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/publish-confirmation/brbrdwy3pr/1).
Inclusion criteria were any cross-sectional or cohort study that analyzed the
Literature search
Overall, 5185 nonduplicate citations were identified in the database search; 4933 were excluded during title and abstract review, and 159 were excluded during full-text review. In total, 93 observational studies met inclusion/exclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 5, 8, 9, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60,
Discussion
This systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies found the global prevalence of AA to be approximately 2%, with significant regional variability; fewer than 1 per 1000 persons were affected by AO, AT, or AU. AA was more common in children/adolescents. Finally, the prevalences of AA overall, and of AO, AT and AU in particular, all significantly increased over time. Together, the results indicate that AA is a common disorder affecting patients worldwide and is commonly seen in
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Funding sources: Supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grant no. K12 HS023011) and the Dermatology Foundation.
Conflicts of interest: None disclosed.
Reprints not available from the authors.