Gender Differences in Clinicoepidemiological Features of Vitiligo: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Background. Vitiligo has important clinical and social consequences particularly in the pigmented skin. The present study was conducted to assess the differences in clinicoepidemiological presentation of vitiligo in males and females and to understand the factors associated with spread of vitiligo in them. Methods. This is a cross-sectional analysis of secondary clinical data of 168 vitiligo patients at a tertiary medical centre at Navi Mumbai. We used logistic regression models to estimate the association between gender and clinical characteristics of vitiligo and to evaluate the factors associated with spread of vitiligo. Results. There were no significant differences between the mean ages of males and females; however, males reported a longer duration of disease (6.9 (10.4) years) compared with females (4.9 (7.4) years). Males were significantly more likely to report a family history of vitiligo compared with females (adjusted OR (aOR): 16.87, 95% CI: 2.16 to 131.69). Even though females were more likely to report spread of lesions, the association was not statistically significant (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 0.62 to 2.36). Discussion. The differences in the clinical presentations between genders highlight the need to understand the different factors (possibly genetic) that may play a part in the pathogenesis of this multifactorial disease in males and females. 1. Introduction Vitiligo, a common dermatological disorder is characterized by milky-white depigmented macules devoid of identifiable melanocytes. Its incidence varies from 1 to 2% worldwide [1] and has been shown to be as high as 3-4% in India [2]. Vitiligo, often considered as a multifactorial disease [3], has important clinical and social consequences particularly in the pigmented skin. Though, the condition is cosmetically important, studies have also shown the association of vitiligo with several organ specific as well as systemic autoimmune diseases [4–6]. Numerous Indian studies have highlighted the clinical profile of vitiligo in various clinical settings [7–11]. Indeed, it has been reported that the mean duration of the disease in most of the patients was less than five years and vitiligo vulgaris was the most common clinical presentation [8, 10, 12]. Epidemiological studies have given a conflicting view of the occurrence of the condition in both genders. For instance, some studies have found that vitiligo was more common in males whereas others have found it to be more common in females [5, 8–10, 12–16]. And finally, some have found no difference in both genders [1, 2, 4]. Furthermore,