Treatment Delay in Patients with Vitiligo

Treatment delays can cause complications later on for patients with vitiligo. This study analyzed demographic disparities related to increased treatment delays among those exhibiting vitiligo symptoms.

Delayed treatment of vitiligo is known to decrease the chance of successful disease stabilization and repigmentation due to how much more effective therapies are during the early stages of disease. This study, published in Cutis, provides a retrospective chart review of 102 patients with vitiligo. The patients included in the study were treated consecutively at an academic clinic in Austin, Texas, over the course of 36 months. The ultimate aim of the study was to investigate factors associated with treatment delays in order to provide further insight and guidance into how to minimize these delays.

The timeframe for the study was January 2017 to January 2020. Each patient’s data included demographic information, the characteristics of their vitiligo, and treatment data. All data were self-reported via a questionnaire given to all patients with vitiligo at the clinic, as well as gathered from medical chart review. Delay in treatment was defined as the time from the date that the patient first noticed vitiligo lesions to the date of their first treatment. The data was then analyzed using a Wilcoxon rank sum test.

Various demographic information is described and summarized, with most of the patients being male (56%) and White (54.9%). The median age of onset was 21 years, and most patients (89.2%) exhibited nonsegmental vitiligo. White patients, as well as those older than 21 at the start of symptoms, had a shorter delay to treatment when compared to other groups. The type of vitiligo, skin type, and smoking status were not associated with any variation in treatment delay. The authors conclude that the main factors that seemed to influence treatment delay were the diagnosing physician’s specialty and patient disease at onset, although minor trends were also found regarding race and body surface area affected.

Reference
Patel, K., Lopes, F., Sebastian, K. R., Jambusaria, A., & Ahmed, A. M. (2022). Assessing Treatment Delays for Vitiligo Patients: A Retrospective Chart Review. Cutis, 109(6), 327-329. doi:10.12788/cutis.0531

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