Chen et al 2023: Vaccine’s Don’t Increase AA Risk and May even Decrease It
A study by Chen and colleagues examined the question “do vaccines increase the risk of developing alopecia areata?”
The authors performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with AA diagnosed at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in Colton, CA at the demographic levels of age group, sex, and race. All cases of initial diagnosis of AA at ARMC occurred between December 17, 2020, and February 10, 2023. The study period was chosen to include the period from the initial COVID-19 vaccination administration to the time of data acquisition for this study.
Between December 17, 2020, and February 10, 2023, 1,402,255 residents had been either fully or partially vaccinated for COVID-19, while 785,250 had not received a vaccination at all. Over the same period, 73 patients at the medical center received an initial diagnosis of AA. Of those 73 patients, 36 had not received a COVID-19 vaccination before the diagnosis of AA, while 37 had been either partially or fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The incidence of AA calculated with the provided 73 AA patients in a 1,402,255 population is roughly 0.0052%
