Getting White Hair Early: Risk Factors

• Premature Hair Greying (PMG) is a source of low self esteem.
• In this study from South Korea the authors sought to investigate risk factors for early white hair.

• In this cross-sectional study, questionnaires were given to men under the age of 30
• This involved a total of 6390 males, after a pilot-study enrolling 1069 subjects (mean age 20.2 years)

• Results showed that the risk factors were:
  • family history of PMG (odds ratio (OR) = 12.82)
  • obesity (OR =2.61)
  • smoking (5 pack years or more, OR =1.61)
  • Having an affected father increased the OR to 14.84, whereas the OR was 2.92 if the mother was affected.
  • There was NO correlation with: past medical or surgical history, androgenic alopecia, medication, drinking, exercise, diet
  • education and scholarly achievement
  • In addition to this it was shown that the severity of PMG was proportional to the degree of obesity (OR 2.22) as well as the family history (OR 2.63)

• Comments:
  • Oxidative stress are results of obesity and smoking
  • The study did NOT concern females.

Contributors

Dr Christophe Hsu – dermatologist. Geneva, Switzerland

Source of information: Risk factors for premature hair graying: family history, smoking and obesity. P050 – Shin H. et al. IPCC2014 Singapore