Trends and Preferences of Rhinoplasty Among Chinese Patients: A Social Media Analysis

Liu Z, He S, Li X, Liu L, Wang Y, Wang Y.

PubMed 38443745 Publisher (DOI)Free full text (PMC)

What this paper says

Analyzing 1065 rhinoplasty posts and 102,153 comments on the Chinese platform Xiaohongshu, discussion rose in step with household income, and the tip and nasal root were the features most discussed.

Overview

The authors set out to describe trends, motivations and preferences around rhinoplasty in China using social media rather than clinic data. Posts about rhinoplasty were collected from Xiaohongshu, and the text of notes and comments was analyzed with Python modules for word frequency and content.

Sections of note

Design: social media text analysis. Level of evidence V.
Dataset: 1065 notes with 102,153 comments, 239,383 collections and 640,579 likes.
Publication volume rose annually and correlated with per capita disposable household income, r squared 0.609, p equal to 0.041.
Southern provinces produced notably more publications than northern provinces, p equal to 0.001.
Publication volume also correlated with population size and disposable income together, r squared 0.786, p less than 0.001.
Most mentioned nasal areas: the tip at 3197 mentions and the nasion, the root of the nose, at 1409.
Most used descriptive words: good-looking at 9672 and natural at 2811.
Most mentioned procedure related terms: doctor at 4377, hospital at 2182 and hyaluronic acid at 2106.

What it means for a patient

Public interest in rhinoplasty in China tracks with rising disposable income rather than with any change in medical practice.
The tip and the root of the nose dominate discussion, and natural is among the most used descriptors, consistent with a preference against an obviously operated look.
Choosing the doctor was mentioned more than any procedure, suggesting surgeon selection is the main concern people voice.
Limits: social media posts reflect what people say publicly, not what they do or what outcomes they get, and level V is the weakest evidence grade.

Why this paper matters

Demand for cosmetic surgery is shaped by public conversation as much as by clinical need, and social media is where that conversation now happens. Quantifying it links demand to economic conditions and identifies which features drive interest. It says nothing about outcomes, safety or who actually had surgery.

Terms

Xiaohongshu: a Chinese social media and lifestyle sharing platform.
Nasion: the root of the nose, the depression between the eyes.
Hyaluronic acid: an injectable gel filler made from a sugar molecule present in tissue.
Disposable income: household income remaining after taxes.
Word frequency analysis: counting how often terms appear in a body of text.

Summary written by rhinoplasty.cc from the abstract, 2026-09-09; not medical advice. The authors' own abstract follows.

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the trends, motivations and preferences of rhinoplasty in China.

Methods: Data on rhinoplasty were collected from Xiaohongshu and analyzed for trends. Text analysis and word frequency statistics were performed on the notes and comments using Python modules.

Results: We obtained 1065 notes with 102,153 comments, 239,383 collections and 640,579 likes. The number of rhinoplasty-related publications increased annually, correlating with per capita disposable income of households (DI) growth (r2 = 0.609, P = 0.041 < 0.05). In the Southern provinces, there was a notably higher volume of publications compared to the Northern provinces (P = 0.001). Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between publication data, population size, and the DI (r2 = 0.786, P < 0.001). The nasal tip (3197) and nasion (1409) were the most mentioned nasal subunits. "Good-looking" (9672) and "natural" (2811) were the most used words to describe the nose shape. The "doctor" (4377), the "hospital" (2182) and "hyaluronic acid" (2106) were the most mentioned rhinoplasty procedure related vocabulary.

Conclusions: Discussions about rhinoplasty in China are increasing, and more people express their desire for rhinoplasty on social networks, related to China's DI growth. The Southern provinces show a higher inclination toward these discussions, a trend that correlates with our findings of a positive association between NOPs and both DI and population size. Netizens pay more attention to the shape of nasal tip and nasion, and prefer the good-looking and natural appearance. Most people consider autologous cartilage or hyaluronic acid injection for rhinoplasty. Doctors are the primary consideration for patients.

Level Of Evidence V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Abstract as indexed by PubMed; the article is open access (PubMed Central).