Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Esthetic Procedures Among Medical Students of Babylon Medical College

Abstract Background: Common medical procedures include esthetic surgery. The above surgeries have grown in popularity in our country due to body image dissatisfaction, the pursuit of perfection, and social media’s growing influence. Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate Babylon Medical College students’ cosmetic procedure knowledge and attitudes. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional research of 480 medical students collected data from January to April 2023 through interviews and self-structured questionnaires. All students inquire about age, family size, gender, residency, monthly income, and college stages. All students interviewed had cosmetic operations (surgical or nonsurgical) before or not. Results: Only 6.5% of students get cosmetic operations, indicating the most popular reasons for avoiding having cosmetic procedures: 74.39% of students are pleased with themselves, 18.04% are frightened of problems, and 5.35% are concerned about money. Students seek cosmetic operations for personal reasons (48.8%), to be more attractive (25.4%), and due to social media influence (12.1%). City living is linked to cosmetic treatment knowledge and practice. Students earning above 1 million Iraqi dinars per month are 64.5% more likely to have and understand cosmetic surgery. Conclusion: This study concludes that most students have no cosmetic operations; most cosmetic procedure knowledge students learn from social media. Students undergo cosmetic operations for personal desire and to seem better, and half of the students who know cosmetic procedures have four to six family members. As most students live in cities, most of them have fair to poor knowledge of cosmetic procedures.