The Link Between Androgenetic Hair Loss and COVID 19 Severity Not All Studies Suggest Link

New Study Questions Link between Androgenetic Alopecia and COVID Severity.

Both males and females can be severely affected by COVID 19 infection. However, the disease course and severity of outcomes is greater in males than females when all patients are considered. For example, in adults, severe morbidity and mortality rates are significantly higher in male (58% and 2.8%, respectively) than female patients (42% and 1.7%, respectively) .

A new study from Iran questions that link between COVID 19 severity and androgenetic hair loss.

The study examined 164 patients including 116 (70.7%) males and 48 (29.3%) females. Men had a significantly lower mean age (62.66 years) compared with women (69.04 years) (p = 0.008).

The degree of hair loss in males were quite varied: The Hamilton–Norwood Scale (HNS) was as follows: HNS I 14.7%, HNS II 12.1%, HNS III 20.7%, HNS IV 19.8%, HNS IV 29.8%, HNS V 17.2%, HNS VI 13.8%, and HNS VII 1.7%

Most women had mild hair loss from androgenetic alopecia. The Ludwig Scale (LS) was as follows: LS I 52.1%, LS II 35.4%, and LS III 12.5%.

Not surprisingly, AGA was statistically more severe in male than female subjects (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference was found between COVID-19 severity and balding patterns in male patients. The authors did find that the severity of AGA was associated with COVID-19 severity in female patients (p = 0.018); however, the number of female patients with severe COVID was low which made data analysis unreliable.

Conclusion

This study adds to the growing body of literature about COVID severity and androgenetic alopecia. This study is small and this may limit conclusions.

REFERENCE

Baghani M et al. Androgenetic alopecia and COVID-19: Is there a clinical connection?. J Cosmet Dermatol . 2022 Feb;21(2):420-425.

Guan W-J, Ni Z-Y, Hu Y, et al. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708-1720.

Jin J-M, Bai P, He W, et al. Gender differences in patients with COVID-19: focus on severity and mortality. Front Public Health. 2020;8:152.