Immune-mediated cicatricial alopecias include frontal fibrosing alopecia (FFA). Sunscreen and other skin care products may have an impact on disease etiology. For a study, researchers sought to offer a quantitative overview of the subject given the contradictory facts.
In August 2021, a thorough search of the PubMed database was carried out. They adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses standards. Prospero was used to register the trial prospectively. With a 95% CI, the odds ratio (OR) represented the pooled effect size. Nine articles out of a total of 87 articles were included. The quality of the studies, as measured by the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS), varied from 5 to 7, which was indicative of intermediate quality.
The published literature compared 1,459 control participants (mean age: 56.9, 89.8% female) and 1,248 FFA patients (mean age: 58.9, 95.7% female). Five years before the commencement of FFA, 6 (66.67%) studies examined the usage of sunscreen and moisturizers. The link between sunscreen and FFA was examined in 9 trials (n = 9); the pooled OR was 1.45 95%CI [1.11-1.90], P =.0068. The pooled OR for the 8 studies examining the association between face moisturizers and FFA was 1.26 (95% CI 1.10-1.43), P =.006.
According to the study’s findings, moisturizers and sunscreen both significantly raised the incidence of FFA by 45% and 26%, respectively. The causation of the link could not be established due to the scarcity of randomized controlled trials and the limited number of research. As a result, superior research was required.
Reference: jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(22)01317-2/fulltext
