Role of physical appearance perfectionism, unconditional self-acceptance, and life quality on rhinoplasty demand

The number of rhinoplasty surgeries has increased dramatically in the past decades in Iran. Researchers have analyzed different affective variables considering this growth, but a less talked subject is the psychological role in this surgery’s applicants. This research was performed to investigate the effects of physical appearance perfectionism and unconditional self-acceptance and life quality on the prevalence of applying for rhinoplasty surgery.

  The study was performed using case-control method on 73 women asking for rhinoplasty with an age range of 20-35 years and 73 women not applying for rhinoplasty with the same age range as the control group. Both groups were selected from patients of five ENT doctor offices in Tehran. All candidates were analyzed using body dismorphic disorder scale proposed by Yale-Brown. Those with positive results were removed from the research. Both groups were evaluated using physical appearance perfectionism survey (PAPS), Unconditional self-acceptance query (USAQ), and short life quality form (SF-36).

The age of requesting group was 27.5 ± 5.2 years and the control group 26.9 ± 4.4 years. Both groups were similar in gender and education, economical, and social status. Scores of physical appearance perfectionism in case group was 8±6/38 and 9±2/33 in control group (P<0.01). There was a difference between Unconditional Self-acceptance query and life quality between the two groups (P<0.05).

It seems that physical appearance perfectionism, unconditional self-acceptance, and life quality have roles in demanding for rhinoplasty surgery.