Prevalence, Pattern and Risk Factors of Premature Hair Greying among University Students in Northern India: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Premature hair greying (PHG) is of the significant concern in adolescents which has a direct pessimistic impact on one's social wellbeing. Existing studies have focussed on epidemiology of PHG on basis of patients visiting dermatological clinics with small sample size, thus not reflecting prevalence. Therefore, an effort was made to check prevalence of PHG among the University students.<br /> Aim: To assess the prevalence of PHG among university students, and explore its association with factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary intake, and family history.<br /> Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using structured questionnaire at Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, India. The sample size came out to be 315; however, based on exclusion and inclusion criteria, the final sample size was 308. The structured questionnaire designed by the researcher aimed to assess the prevalence, cut-off age of PHG and risk factors associated with PHG among the Chitkara University students, Punjab belonging to different parts of Northern India. The risk factors included role of genetics, smoking, alcohol intake and dietary preferences impacting PHG. The continuous variables presented as mean +/- standard deviation. The bivariate analysis was done using Fischer's exact test and Chi-square test. The significance value was set at 0.05.<br /> Results: The prevalence of PHG was found to be 31.8%, among which 65 (66.3%) were females and 33 (33.7%) were males. Geographical distribution showed Punjab constituting the highest with 36 (36.7%) followed by Himachal Pradesh 24 (24.5%), Chandigarh 13 (13.3%), Jammu and Kashmir 11 (11.2%), Haryana 10 (10.2%) and other North Indian states 4 (4.1%). The mean age of the participants were 19.37 +/- 1.9 years. In females, the parietal area was the most affected by PHG while in males, it was more common in the frontal area of the scalp. There was an association between the family history and PHG (p-value < 0.0001); however, no association was seen concerning smoking, alcohol consumption and dietary patterns.<br /> Conclusion: The prevalence of PHG in youngsters is escalating having an onset age as low as 10 years and variation in the hair greying pattern on the scalp Of all the factor tested, family history was found to be the significant risk factors associated with PHG. Thus, further studies at larger population are needed to reach to conclusive evidence.