Comorbidity Burden Among Patients with Vitiligo in the United States: A Large-Scale Retrospective Claims Database Analysis

Introduction Vitiligo is often associated with comorbid conditions that may increase economic burden and affect patients’ health-related quality of life. No large-scale study has been published to date using claims databases to evaluate the burden of comorbidities among patients with vitiligo. Herein, we evaluate the comorbidity burden among patients diagnosed with vitiligo from the US. Methods This retrospective cohort analysis used the Merative MarketScan Commercial Database. Eligible patients were diagnosed with vitiligo between January 2008 and December 2020 and matched 1:4 (vitiligo:control) with control subjects with no diagnosis of vitiligo between January 2007 and December 2021. Study outcomes were the incidence of comorbidities after matching, adjusted hazard ratios of comorbidity incidence among patients with vitiligo relative to matched control subjects, and time to comorbidity diagnosis or incidence. Results Baseline demographics were well balanced between matched vitiligo ( n = 13,687) and control cohorts ( n = 54,748). Incidence rates of comorbidities were higher among patients compared with control subjects (psychiatric, 28.4% vs 22.8%; autoimmune, 13.4% vs 5.1%; and non-autoimmune, 10.0% vs 7.0%). The most common psychiatric and autoimmune comorbidities in patients with vitiligo compared with control subjects included anxiety (14.3% vs 11.0%, respectively), sleep disturbance (9.1% vs 7.1%), depression (8.0% vs 6.3%), atopic dermatitis (3.1% vs 1.1%), psoriasis (2.7% vs 0.6%), and linear morphea (1.5% vs 0.1%). The risk of developing any psychiatric (hazard ratio 1.31; P < 0.01), autoimmune (hazard ratio 2.77; P < 0.01), or non-autoimmune (hazard ratio 1.45; P < 0.01) comorbidity was significantly higher among patients with vitiligo. Time to diagnosis of most vitiligo comorbidities was 1–3 years, although linear morphea was diagnosed at < 1 year. Conclusion Results of this retrospective analysis demonstrated that patients were much more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune or psychiatric comorbidities following a vitiligo diagnosis, which likely contributed to increased economic burden and lower quality of life.