Investigation of Patients’ Motivation for Cosmetic Surgery in a Nationwide Cosmetic Surgery Group

Abstract

Background: Recently, cosmetic surgeons in Japan have used social media to advertise their procedures. We analyzed the influence of social and other media on patients’ motivation to visit our clinic using the aggregated results of a questionnaire distributed to our cosmetic surgery group. Methods: We obtained the data of 146,108 patients from our database between September 2018 and February 2023. To understand changes in patient motivation over time, patient motivation was compared between the opening (September 2018–February 2020), growth (March 2020–August 2021), and expansion (September 2021–February 2023) periods. Results: Most patients were motivated to visit clinics by the internet (53.7%) and Instagram (17.3%). Between the opening and growth periods, the internet [odds ratio (OR) 1.28; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14–1.43] and referrals (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.08–2.01) significantly increased. Between the opening and expansion periods, there was a significant increase in TV (OR, 4.86; 95% CI, 3.09–7.65) and TikTok use (OR, 24.9; 95% CI, 3.50–177.0). There was more variability in the motivation to visit our clinic during the expansion period than during the other periods, and patients’ motivation differed by procedure and region. In addition, TikTok was used primarily by patients in their late teens and early twenties, whereas TV was used by those in their twenties and forties. YouTube, referrals, and review websites were distributed bimodally. Conclusions: Patients choose information from various media sources. To attract more patients to our clinics, it is important to disseminate information on both the internet and social media.