TUESDAY, Dec. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Celiac disease is associated with an increased risk for developing alopecia areata, according to a letter to the editor published online Nov. 21 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Rashwan Alameddine, from the Texas A&M University College Station in Bryan, and colleagues investigated the potential association between celiac disease and the prevalence of alopecia areata. The analysis included 495,211 individuals with celiac disease matched for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and other comorbidities to 495,112 individuals without celiac disease.

The researchers found that patients with celiac disease had an elevated risk for developing alopecia areata (odds ratio, 1.25).

"Our case control study found a significant association in the prevalence of alopecia areata in patients diagnosed with celiac disease; however, this does not correlate to causation," the authors write. "The large sample size leveraged in this study substantiates an association that was previously suggested but not well established. The compelling degree of association found, even with the possible errors inherent in large, automatically compiled databases, affirms the long suspected association between celiac disease and increased risk of alopecia areata."

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