#CosmeticsTwitter: Predicting Public Interest in Nonsurgical Cosmetic Procedures Using Twitter Data

The utilization of social media in plastic surgery is expanding. The Twitter Academic Research Product Tract (TARPT) database provides plastic surgeons the opportunity to monitor public interest in plastic surgery procedures. Previously, TARPT was shown to be effective in tracking public interest in surgical cosmetic facial and body procedures.

The authors sought to determine the ability of the TARPT tool to track and predict public interest in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures and to examine temporal public interest trends in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures.

The authors employed the TARPT tool to calculate the total number of tweets containing keywords related to 15 nonsurgical cosmetic procedures from 2010 to 2020. Annual case volumes were obtained for each of the 15 procedures from annual reports provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Univariate linear regression was employed to compare tweet volumes and procedure volumes, with P < 0.05 as a threshold for significance.

Univariate linear regression revealed significant positive correlations between tweet volumes and American Society of Plastic Surgeons procedure volumes for 10 search terms representing 6 nonsurgical cosmetic procedures: "xeomin," "microdermabrasion," "facial filler," "fat filler," "fat injections," "fat transfer," "hyaluronic acid filler," "hyaluronic acid injection," "HA filler," and "PRP filler." Thirty-two search terms did not demonstrate a significant relationship.

The TARPT tool is an informative data source for plastic surgeons with the potential to guide marketing and advertising strategies, and monitor public interest in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures, helping surgeons respond to patients' evolving needs.