Comparison between Body Image, Self-Esteem and Mental Health of Females Requesting and Non-Applicant Rhinoplasty Referred to two Kermanshah Cosmetic Surgery Centers in 2017-2018

Rhinoplasty is one of the most common cosmetic surgeries in Iran increasing in number daily. Studies have shown that psychological factors influence people's tendency to cosmetic surgery. The present study aimed to compare body image, self-esteem, and mental health indices between cosmetic surgery applicants and non-applicants in women referred to two Kermanshah cosmetic surgery centers in 2018-2019.
Materials &

This is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study performed on a sample of 64 women in two Kermanshah cosmetic surgery centers including a private clinic and Taleghani hospital in 2018-2019. In this study, 32 applicants for rhinoplasty were compared with 32 non-applicants. Data were collected using the multidimensional body-self relations questionnaire (MBSRQ) developed by Cash (1997), the Cooper-Smith Self-esteem Questionnaire (1967) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) developed by Goldberg and Miller (1997). The gathered data were analyzed using SPPSS-16 software and descriptive and inferential statistics of independent t groups and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Significance level in this study was considered less than 0.05.

The mean score of mental health in the applicant group was 28.56 ± 06.14 higher than the non-applicant group (96.49 ± 63.10) (P = 0.22, T = 0.22) and among the mental health subscales, only depression showed a significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.003). Mean score of depression was 53.13 ± 48.5 in the applicant group and 09.10 ± 15.3 in the
non-applicant group. The mean total score of self-esteem did not differ significantly between the two groups (P = 0.22). Among the subscales of self-esteem, only the variables of family
self-esteem (mean score of applicant group = 34.4±38.1 and mean score of non-applicant group=18.5 ±06.1, P = 0.008) and social self-esteem (mean score of applicant group = 90.3±30.1 and mean score of non-applicant group = 68.4 ± 96, P = 0.008) showed significant difference between two groups. Also, body image and its subscales were not significantly different between the two groups (P > 0.05).

According to the results of this study, depression and low family and social self-esteem can lead to cosmetic surgeries, thus using effective interventions in this field, unnecessary cosmetic surgeries can be prevented.