Investigating Gender Differences in Canadian Plastic Surgery Online Patient Education.

BACKGROUND: The public interest and demand for cosmetic surgery is growing in North America. As practices continue to advertise cosmetic procedures, male consumers must also be given fair consideration in a market targeted mostly towards women. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the advertising trends of plastic surgery clinics to assess for prevailing gender differences among online Canadian plastic surgery practice advertising. METHODS: The 2021 College of Physicians and Surgeons directory for each province and territory was utilized to identify all practicing plastic surgeons. A systematic search with Google (Mountain View, CA) was conducted to analyze the websites of Canadian plastic surgery centers in the following manner: "[physician name] [province of practice]." RESULTS: A total of 209 websites and 13,838 images were identified and analyzed. Of these images, 12,386 (90%) were female and 1452 (10%) were male patients or models. Although only 20% had a male services page, 62% of all centers offered gynecomastia procedures. The most common procedures targeting men were blepharoplasty (95%), liposuction (93%), and abdominoplasty (93%). The Prairies region had significantly fewer websites with male-only pages compared with all other Canadian regions. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the increase in cosmetic surgery procedures for males, the market for cosmetic surgery procedures targeted towards males remains insignificant. An increase in the advertising of in-demand male cosmetic procedures can allow for a broader consumer market and a subsequent increase in benefits for plastic surgeons.

Entering the Misinformation Age: Quality and Reliability of YouTube for Patient Information on Liposuction.

Background: YouTube is currently the most popular online platform and is increasingly being utilized by patients as a resource on aesthetic surgery. Yet, its content is largely unregulated and this may result in dissemination of unreliable and inaccurate information. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality and reliability of YouTube liposuction content available to potential patients. Methods: YouTube was screened using the keywords: "liposuction," "lipoplasty," and "body sculpting." The top 50 results for each term were screened for relevance. Videos which met the inclusion criteria were scored using the Global Quality Score (GQS) for educational value and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria for video reliability. Educational value, reliability, video views, likes, dislikes, duration and publishing date were compared between authorship groups, high/low reliability, and high/low educational value. Results: A total of 150 videos were screened, of which 89 videos met the inclusion criteria. Overall, the videos had low reliability (mean JAMA score = 2.78, SD = 1.15) and low educational value (mean GQS score = 3.55, SD = 1.31). Videos uploaded by physicians accounted for 83.1% percent of included videos and had a higher mean educational value and reliability score than those by patients. Video views, likes, dislikes, comments, popularity, and length were significantly greater in videos with high reliability. Conclusions: To ensure liposuction-seeking patients are appropriately educated and informed, surgeons and their patients may benefit from an analysis of educational quality and reliability of such online content. Surgeons may wish to discuss online sources of information with patients.

Historique : YouTube est actuellement la plateforme la plus populaire en ligne. Les patients l'utilisent de plus en plus comme ressource en chirurgie plastique. Pourtant, son contenu est en grande partie non réglementé, ce qui peut entraîner la diffusion d'information peu fiable et inexacte. La présente étude vise à évaluer la qualité et la fiabilité du contenu de YouTube sur la liposuccion à la disposition de patients éventuels. Méthodologie : Les chercheurs ont fait une recherche dans YouTube à l'aide des mots-clés liposuction, lipoplasty et body sculpting. Ils ont examiné les 50 premiers résultats de chaque terme pour en déterminer la pertinence. Ils ont classé les vidéos qui respectaient les critères d'inclusion d'après le score de qualité globale (SGQ) pour leur valeur éducative et les critères du Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) pour la fiabilité des vidéos. Ils ont comparé la valeur éducative, leur fiabilité, le nombre de visionnements, les « J'aime ¼, les « Je n'aime pas ¼, la durée et la date de publication entre groupes d'auteur, la forte et la faible fiabilité et la valeur éducative élevée ou basse. Résultats : Les chercheurs ont visionné 150 vidéos, dont 89 respectaient les critères d'inclusion. Dans l'ensemble, elles avaient une faible fiabilité (score JAMA moyen = 2.78, ÉT = 1.15) et une faible valeur éducative (SQG moyen = 3.55, ÉT = 1.31). Les vidéos téléversées par des médecins formaient 83,1% du contenu et présentaient une valeur éducative moyenne et un score de fiabilité plus élevés que celles des patients. Les visionnements, les « J'aime ¼, les « Je n'aime pas ¼, les commentaires, la popularité et la durée étaient beaucoup plus élevés lorsque les vidéos avaient une forte viabilité. Conclusions : Pour que les patients qui veulent subir une liposuccion reçoivent la bonne information, les chercheurs et leurs patients peuvent profiter d'une analyse de la qualité et de la fiabilité du contenu en ligne. Les chirurgiens pourraient souhaiter parler des sources d'information en ligne avec leurs patients.