Cap Wearing and Quality of Life in Patients with Androgenic Alopecia amongst Indian Population

Abstract

Androgenic or androgenetic alopecia is a very frequent cause of hair loss affecting males over 50 years of age. For ages, wearing a cap which covers the frontal, parietal and upper parts of temporal and occipital areas of the scalp is commonly employed as a tradition in males. These areas coincide with the affected area in androgenic alopecia. Hence, a cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted to analyze the association between cap wearing habits and quality of life with androgenic alopecia among Indian male patients aged above 50 years. Skindex-29 was used as a tool to assess quality of life in these patients. Based on the results, we found no significant association between cap wearing habits and quality of life in Indian males with androgenic alopecia (p=0.348). But, quality of life was highly associated with the severity of androgenic alopecia among Indian male patients (p=0.003) indicating that the more severe the androgenic alopecia, the poorer is the patient’s quality of life. We also find that as the patient’s age increases, the more severe is the androgenic alopecia among Indian males (p=0.012). Also as their hours of cap wearing increases, their desire to undergo treatment for their androgenic alopecia also decreases substantially (p=0.001). Thus cap wearing frequency has no effect on quality of life in Indian males with androgenic alopecia. Severity of androgenic alopecia has a profound effect on quality of life among Indian male patients. With increasing age, the severity of androgenic alopecia also increases. Frequency of cap wearing has no effect on severity of androgenic alopecia. Increasing hours of cap wearing showed decrease in interest to seek medical treatment.