Workplace Bullying Experienced by Patients With Alopecia Areata

According to a study published in Skin Appendage Disorders, there is a psychosocial impact of alopecia areata (AA) in which individuals with AA experience workplace bullying.

Researchers employed the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised scale, targeting individuals with AA through the National Alopecia Areata Foundation database. Among 1120 eligible participants, 673 successfully completed the survey. Predominantly, the respondents were female (79.8%), White (75.5%), averaging age 46.8 years, and engaged in full-time employment (63.4%).

The findings revealed that 21.7% of participants (146 individuals) reported instances of workplace bullying. The most common forms of bullying included having their opinions disregarded (53.8%), facing exclusion (47.7%), and being the subject of gossip (44.0%). Interestingly, 75.0% of those who identified as victims of bullying took steps to address the issue, yet in 30.8% of cases, the bullying persisted even after intervention. The study uncovered that filing a complaint induced stress in 43.5% of cases, whereas concerns about potential effects on future career opportunities were expressed by 36.1% of respondents, indicating barriers to reporting bullying incidents.

“Future work is warranted to identify strategies to reduce bullying against patients with AA,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Li SJ, Reyes-Hadsall S, Drake L, Huang K, Mostaghimi A. Experiencing workplace bullying in patients with alopecia areata: a cross-sectional survey study. Skin Appendage Disord. 2023;9(4):258-261. doi:10.1159/000529924