Do Educational Cosmetic Accounts on Social Media Influence the Consideration of Cosmetic Procedures?

This study aims to objectively report how exploring educational cosmetic accounts influences adults' decision to undergo cosmetic procedures.

This interventional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from May to August 2023. A validated questionnaire was distributed via multiple platforms to assess the influence of educational cosmetic accounts on social media on participants' considerations of cosmetic procedures.

In this study, 209 participants completed the questionnaire, predominantly females (91.9%) aged 25-30 years (41.6%), Saudi (93.8%), and university-educated (65.1%). Social media (SM) engagement was common, with 56% following a cosmetic physician, primarily on Snapchat (32.1%), Instagram (24.9%), and TikTok (22.5%). A significant portion had family members who underwent cosmetic procedures (plastic surgery: 30.1%, non-surgical: 65.6%) and friends who did likewise (plastic surgery: 44%, non-surgical: 71.8%). Notably, 31.6% reported that educational cosmetic accounts influenced their consideration to undergo plastic surgery. Statistical analyses showed no significant differences in attitudes toward procedural information or preferences from two educational accounts between participants who underwent plastic surgery and those opting for non-surgical procedures (p ≥ 0.05).

Educational content may assist plastic surgeons in raising awareness and providing procedural information, particularly among young women. However, the current data suggest that such content does not uniformly affect all viewers. Therefore, future research should explore the factors that mediate responsiveness to educational media, differentiate more robustly between surgical and non-surgical decision-making, and investigate longer-term impacts using longitudinal designs. Level of Evidence IV This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .