Background: Vitiligo is an acquired, progressive depigmenting disorder that presents as depigmented macules or patches. Although it may manifest at any time in life, it usually begins in childhood. There is insufficient data to compare the clinical correlations of prepubertal and post-pubertal onset vitiligo.

Objective: To compile the clinical profiles and sociodemographic parameters of vitiligo patients by the age of onset of vitiligo.

Materials and Methods: Aretrospectivehospital-based study in a tertiary care hospital, the medical records of all patients with vitiligo who attended the OPD over a period of one year were analyzed.

Results: Out of 307 patients, 210 had post-pubertal and 97 had pre-pubertal onsets of vitiligo. There were more females in the prepubertal group than in the post-pubertal group. Only in those with a post-pubertal onset, vitiligo universalis was observed. Segmental vitiligo was seen more in the prepubertal onset group. In univariate analysis, previous episodes of spontaneous re-pigmentation, family history of vitiligo, and canities are commonly associated with prepubertal onset. The association with type 2 diabetes in vitiligo was greater in the post-pubertal group. In multivariate analysis, halo naevi and family history of canities remained statistically significant for prepubertal vitiligo.

Conclusions: Our data present clinical evidence that vitiligo behaves mostly the same way in both groups except that pre-pubertal onset vitiligo is strongly associated with a family history of vitiligo and a personal history of atopy, suggesting that it has a stronger hereditary component and immunological milieu than post-pubertal vitiligo.