The Quality of Sleep and Quality of Life in Patients with Alopecia

Abstract

Background and Objective: Alopecia is one of the most common skin disorders that can affect the quality of life (QOL) in patients. Since few studies have simultaneously evaluated the QOL and quality of sleep in patients with alopecia, this study aimed to evaluate these two important factors in patients with different types of hair loss and among demographic variables.

Materials and Methods: Using a convenience sampling method, this cross-sectional study was performed on all patients with various types of alopecia referring to the Dermatology Clinic of Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, in 2016. For data collection, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaires were used.

Results: A total of 70 patients with four types of hair loss, including androgenic alopecia, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE) were evaluated. The overall sleep quality score was 5.51 ± 2.93, which was not significantly different in all four patient groups (P > 0.05). The overall DLQI score was 4.40 ± 4.30, which had little effect on the QOL in most patients with alopecia (40.6%). The overall QOL and quality of sleep scores were not significantly correlated with such demographic variables as age, gender, marital status, education, and employment (P > 0.05). The SF-36 questionnaire and DLQI had a significant inverse relationship (r = -0.285, P = 0.026).

Conclusion: Our study showed that the quality of sleep and QOL were affected in all four types of patients with alopecia. As a result, attention to quality of sleep and QOL in these patients with any demographic characteristics is important. However, more studies are needed to confirm the results.