The Zoom Boom: How Video Calling Impacts Attitudes towards Aesthetic Surgery in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the widespread adoption of video calling. A parallel growth in aesthetic surgery demand has been documented. Objectives: The authors sought to identify associations between video call engagement and aesthetic surgery attitudes. Methods: We distributed a cross-sectional survey via Amazon Mechanical Turk in November 2020. Respondents were asked to report their time spent video calling, video calling applications and features (eg, virtual backgrounds) they utilized, and aesthetic surgery attitudes employing the 15-item Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS; higher scores indicate greater acceptance). ACSS scores were compared between video call users and non-users employing t tests. Pearson's correlation coefficient was employed to quantify associations between ACSS scores and time spent on calls and multivariable analysis to estimate associations between video call engagement and ACSS scores. Results: A total of 295 respondents (mean age, 37.6 years; 49.5% female) completed the survey. Across all video call applications surveyed, video call users had higher ACSS scores than non-users. Increased time respondents spent looking at their own face on video call was moderately associated with higher ACSS scores (r = 0.48, P < 0.01), whereas time spent looking at another person's face was not associated with a change in ACSS scores (r = 0.09, P = 0.11). Increased video call utilization was associated with higher ACSS scores. Conclusions: Increased video calling utilization is associated with increased acceptance of aesthetic surgery. Although the clinical significance of ACSS scores can be better elucidated, plastic surgeons should consider the effects of video calling on patient motivations for aesthetic surgery in the COVID-19 era.