FAQI have vitiligo: will my children have vitiligo, too?

FAQ

Children born to parents who both have the disorder are more likely to develop vitiligo. However, most children will not get vitiligo even if one parent has it. In children with focal and segmental vitiligo, there is often no family history of vitiligo or other autoimmune disorders.

The frequency of vitiligo among first degree relatives in white, Indo - Pakistani, and Hispanic populations is 7.1%, 6.1%, and 4.8%, respectively. Identical twins with identical DNA have only a 23% chance of developing vitiligo, suggesting a significant non-genetic component in the disease.

In the recent VALIANT study (2022), almost three-fifths of patients (57%) noted a family history of vitiligo. It was most common among patients with the high percentage of body surface area affected by vitiligo, darker skin types, and facial lesions.

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