Mathematical Modeling of the Consumption of Low Invasive Plastic Surgery Practices: The Case of Spain

Abstract

Plastic surgery practice grows continuously among the women in Western countries due to their body image dissatisfaction, aging anxiety, and an ideal body image propagated by the media. The consumption growth is so important that plastic surgery is becoming a normal practice among women, like any other cosmetic product, with the risk of suffering psychopathology disorders in the sense that plastic surgery could be employed as an instrument to recover personal self-esteem or even happiness. Plastic surgery practice depends on economic, demographic, and social contagion factors. In this paper, a mathematical epidemiological model to forecast female plastic surgery consumption in Spain is fully constructed. Overconsumer subpopulation is predicted and simulated. Robustness of the model versus uncertain parameters is studied throughout a sensitivity analysis.