Experience and Acceptance of Cosmetic Procedures Among South Korean Women in Their 20s

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between acceptance of cosmetic surgery (ACS) and cosmetic procedure experience in women in their 20s. METHODS: We collected 330 randomly sampled women in their 20s in November 2017. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, crosstabs, Chi-square test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: Almost all (97.9%) of the subjects had heard about the side effects of cosmetic surgery, and “Internet” was the most common source of information (57.3%). The number of subjects who had already undergone more than 1 cosmetic procedure was 124 women (37.6%), and the first age of cosmetic procedure was 21.81 (± 2.83) years old. ACS had a negative correlation with appearance satisfaction (r = − 0.18, p = 0.001). There was positive correlation between appearance satisfaction and self-esteem (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and negative correlation between appearance satisfaction and body mass index (BMI) (r = − 0.28, p < 0.001). The higher the age of 1 year, the greater the probability of experience of cosmetic procedure (1.17 times) (OR 1.17, p = 0.002), and the higher the ACS score, the greater the probability of cosmetic procedure being 1.06 times (OR 1.06, p < 0.001). The higher the BMI score, the lower the probability of experiencing cosmetic procedure by 0.84 times (OR 0.84, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Age, ACS and BMI were the factors influencing the cosmetic procedure experience, and the cosmetic procedure experience led to more cosmetic procedures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies, or reports of expert committees. 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.