#CosmeticsTwitter: Predicting Public Interest in Nonsurgical Cosmetic Procedures Using Twitter Data.

BACKGROUND: The use of social media in plastic surgery is expanding. The Twitter Academic Research Product Tract (TARPT) database provides plastic surgeons the opportunity to monitor public interest in plastic surgery procedures. Previously, TARPT has been shown to be effective in tracking public interest in surgical cosmetic facial and body procedures.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the ability of the TARPT tool to track and predict public interest in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures and to examine temporal public interest trends in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures.

METHODS: We used the TARPT tool to calculate the total number of tweets containing keywords related to 15 nonsurgical cosmetic procedures from 2010 to 2020. We obtained annual case volumes for each of the 15 procedures from annual reports provided by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). We used univariate linear regression to compare tweet volumes and procedure volumes, using P < 0.05 as a threshold for significance.

RESULTS: Univariate linear regression revealed significant positive correlations between tweet volumes and ASPS procedure volumes for 10 search terms representing six nonsurgical cosmetic procedures: "xeomin", "microdermabrasion", "facial filler", "fat filler", "fat injections", "fat transfer", "hyaluronic acid filler", "hyaluronic acid injection", "HA filler", and "PRP filler". Thirty-two search terms did not demonstrate a significant relationship, illustrating the importance of careful selection of search terms.

CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses demonstrates that the TARPT tool is an informative data source for plastic surgeons, with the potential to (1) guide marketing and advertising strategies and (2) monitor real-time public interest in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures, helping surgeons respond to patients' evolving needs.