Investigators may have uncovered the protective effects of autoimmunity in patients with vitiligo, according to a Korean study published by Ju et al in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Investigators used the National Health Insurance Service database and the National Death Registry to analyze the outcomes of 107,424 patients with incident vitiligo and 537,120 sociodemographic factor–matched controls. They found that compared with controls, patients with vitiligo experienced mortality rates of 34.8 vs 45.3 per 10,000 person-years. Further, the patients with vitiligo experienced lower cause-specific mortality rates related to cancer, endocrine diseases, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, neurologic diseases, renal and urogenital diseases, and infectious diseases. The investigators concluded that vitiligo-associated autoimmunity may be a contributing factor in the reduced risk of mortality in this patient population.