All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among Patients with Vitiligo: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Korea
Clinical Summary
View sourceWhat was studied
A nationwide, population-based cohort in Korea linked the National Health Insurance Service with the National Death Registry to compare all-cause and cause-specific mortality in 107,424 patients with incident vitiligo versus 537,120 sociodemographic-matched controls (1:5).
Key findings
All-cause mortality was 34.8 vs 45.3 per 10,000 person-years, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.75 (95% CI 0.72–0.78); cause-specific mortality from infectious, oncologic, hematologic, endocrine, neurologic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal/urogenital diseases was also significantly lower in patients with vitiligo.
Study limitations
Nonrandomized, matched cohort; residual confounding may remain despite sociodemographic matching. Follow-up duration, detailed adjustment covariates, and cause-of-death definitions are not provided in the abstract.
Clinical implications
Vitiligo was associated with lower all-cause and multiple cause-specific mortality compared with matched controls in this large Korean cohort. This finding can help reassure patients, while clinicians should interpret it with caution given possible confounding.
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