Data-Driven Insights on the Effects of COVID-19 on Aesthetics: Part I (Passive Analysis).

Abstract

BackgroundSince COVID-19 was declared to be a worldwide pandemic and US national emergency in March (week 11), it has significantly changed aesthetic plastic surgery. As plastic surgeons now move towards reopening practices, understanding public interest in medical aesthetics will be critical to maximize efforts and resource allocation in procedures and treatments that patients want.ObjectiveThis study passively queries public interest in aesthetics using Google Trends search data.MethodsGoogle Trends was used to quantify relative search volumes over the past four years for a variety of categories: patient-related, surgery-related, injectables, breast procedures, face procedures, and body procedures. Data were deseasonalized and represented graphically. Z-scores of each time-point differing from the expected values was determined using least squares regression.ResultsOf the 204 significantly anomalous search term data points in 2020, 172 (84.0%) occurred after week 11 (pandemic/national emergency declaration). 60% of searches in all time-points after week 11 were significantly different, and 25/26 (96.0%) of search terms experienced significant changes after week 11. Eighteen terms saw decreased interest with variable recovery. Procedural nadirs for decreased search volume troughs occurred between weeks 11-14. Six patient-related chief complaints saw increased search interest after COVID-19, with peak interest between weeks 11-17.ConclusionsThis is the first study to assess real-time, national data about the impact of COVID-19 on public interest in aesthetics.