Cosmetic surgery on YouTube: a content analysis of East Asian blepharoplasty-related videos in South Korea

Kyoung-Min Kang; Yongil Shin; Kyoungjin Kang

doi:10.25056/JCM.2020.4.2.69

J Cosmet Med 2020; 4(2): 69-74 https://doi.org/10.25056/JCM.2020.4.2.69

Cosmetic surgery on YouTube: a content analysis of East Asian blepharoplasty-related videos in South Korea

Kyoung-Min Kang¹, Yongil Shin, MD, PhD^2,3, Kyoungjin Kang, MD, PhD⁴

¹Korean College of Cosmetic Medicine (KCCS), Busan, Rep. of Korea, ²Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Yangsan, Rep. of Korea, ³Research Institute for Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Rep. of Korea, ⁴Seoul Cosmetic Surgery Clinic, Busan, Rep. of Korea

Kyoungjin Kang
E-mail: safikccs@pascal-world.com

Received: September 29, 2020; Accepted: November 3, 2020; Published online: December 31, 2020.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract: Background: As social media gets commonly used worldwide, there is an enormous amount of information available on YouTube. While cosmetic surgery-related content in English on YouTube has been studied priorly, those in Korean have not been explored.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze the status quo of aesthetic-related content, specifically on East Asian blepharoplasty, on YouTube in South Korea.
Methods: The 535 returned videos for the search term ‘SSangkkeopul Susul’, the Korean word for East Asian blepharoplasty, were collected on July 9, 2020, and classified by types of content and uploader, view counts, and length of videos, then, analyze, using Excel (Microsoft).
Results: Fifty five percent of collected videos was to provide surgery-related information, and 20.0% was to show patient experience. Also, 76.8% of the videos were uploaded by medical doctors or clinics, while 13.6% was uploaded by personal accounts and 5.4% by content creators. The most common type of content was surgery-related information uploaded by medical doctors and clinics, followed by patient experience posted by personal channels. The average length of all videos was 4 minutes 46 seconds. However, among the ten most-viewed videos, only one was uploaded by medical doctor and the others were uploaded by non-medical personnel.
Conclusion: Medical doctors have a quantitatively huge influence on cosmetic surgery-related content on YouTube in Korea, which leads the information in those videos more reliable. However, due to the lack of clarity in relevant regulations and the absence of constant monitoring, potentially harmful or sensitive contents are still available on YouTube. Thus, preventative measures at the governmental level are needed.; Keywords: double eyelid surgery; East Asian blepharoplasty; Medical Service Act; YouTube

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