Muhammad Arif Maan, Fatma Hussain, Ayesha Abrar, Hoda Zahoor, Shahid Javaid Akhtar.
Knowledge, beliefs and perceptions among alopecia areata patients: a cross-sectional study in Faisalabad.
J Pak Assoc Derma Jan ;31(1):51-7.

Introduction Alopecia areata (AA) is described as a pathological condition with undesirable, non-predictable hair loss. Being a multifactorial disease, many environmental, immunological, psychological and genetic risk factors attribute the onset and progression of AA. Objective Present study was undertaken to assess awareness, social impact, degree of stigma and management approaches among local AA patients.  Methods The study was cross-sectional & conducted in Dermatology Department of Government General Hospital, Ghulam Muhammad Abad, Faisalabad. The duration of study was six months i.e. from February 2019 to July 2019 recruiting 50 patients. A questionnaire was designed and distributed among participants recruited through convenient sampling method to collect baseline information such as age, gender, age at onset, duration of AA, marital status, education along with knowledge, perceptions and behavior based-queries.  Results With average age of 27.5±2.92 years, 74% participants were male. About 90% participants were married and only 3% were graduates. Majority (62%) had no knowledge about causes of AA. When asked about causative factors, almost 42% of the participants believed that germs and viruses may cause AA. Although family life of 56% respondents was unaffected by disease, yet social life of 66% patients suffered from AA. Depression was experienced by 48% subjects. Availability of economical treatment options was in the knowledge of 50-70% respondents. Conclusion It is concluded that low literacy rate and lack of knowledge about AA can lead to improper treatment options and stress.

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