Views of college students on plastic surgery.

[BACKGROUND] Various studies have been conducted in many countries to determine the perception/awareness about plastic surgery. The present study assessed the views of college students about plastic surgery.

[METHODS] A questionnaire consisted of nine questions regarding the basic knowledge about plastic surgery was randomly distributed among college students. The students were given 20 minutes to fill out the forms.

[RESULTS] A total of 250 male and 250 female college students were randomly included in the study. The mean age of the male students was 21.1 years as compared to 20.7 years of female students. The top five conditions named were related to hair (89.8%) followed by face scars (88%). The most common procedure named by the students was liposuction (88.2%) followed by hair transplantation. 80.2% of the students opted not to be a plastic surgeon if given an opportunity to select the profession. 33.8% of the students had seen some kinds of plastic surgery operation. Only 5.6% of the students (3.4% male and 2.2% female) had seen some kinds of plastic surgery procedure. 68% of male students and 48% of female students wished to have a plastic surgery procedure sometime in their lives. Majority of the students (88%) got the information from the internet. The second most common source was magazines (85.2%). Majority of the students (53.4%) had an idea of an invisible scar as a result of having a plastic surgery procedure. Only 22% thought to have no scar. Late Michael Jackson was at the top of the list of celebrities having a plastic surgery procedure (97.8%) followed by Nawaz Shariff (92.4%).

[CONCLUSION] Despite the rapid growth of plastic surgery in the last two decades, a large portion of population remains unaware of the spatiality. It is essential to institute programs to educate healthcare consumers and providers about the plastic surgery.