Prevalence of addictive use of cosmetic procedures and risk factors among Israeli women

Vera Skvirsky; Uri Lifshin; Dvora Shmulewitz; Mario Mikulincer

doi:10.1177/13591053261444719

Prevalence of addictive use of cosmetic procedures and risk factors among Israeli women

Vera Skvirsky^*
, Uri Lifshin^*
, Dvora Shmulewitz
, Mario Mikulincer

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

There is an increase in use of cosmetic procedures (CP) worldwide. Research suggests that people might develop addictive cosmetic procedures use (ACPU). We aimed to assess the prevalence of ACPU and explore associated risk factors. We collected cross-sectional data from a large sample of Jewish women in Israel aged 25–71 (N = 1614). We measured self-reported ACPU, personality measures (body- and self-esteem, attachment security), attitudes (feminism, anti-aging) and problematic social media use (PSMU). Among women who had CP (n = 710), 20% reported moderate-severe risk for ACPU during their lifetime and 15.4% in the past year. Multiple regression analyses indicated that higher ACPU was associated with lower body esteem and feminist attitudes and with higher PSMU. The association between body esteem and ACPU was primarily among women with higher PMSU. Findings indicate that ACPU is prevalent and emphasizes the importance of various risk factors, especially low body esteem and PSMU.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Health Psychology
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053261444719
State	Accepted/In press - 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

addiction
body esteem
cosmetic procedures
risk factors
social media

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10.1177/13591053261444719License: CC BY-NC

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abstract = "There is an increase in use of cosmetic procedures (CP) worldwide. Research suggests that people might develop addictive cosmetic procedures use (ACPU). We aimed to assess the prevalence of ACPU and explore associated risk factors. We collected cross-sectional data from a large sample of Jewish women in Israel aged 25–71 (N = 1614). We measured self-reported ACPU, personality measures (body- and self-esteem, attachment security), attitudes (feminism, anti-aging) and problematic social media use (PSMU). Among women who had CP (n = 710), 20\% reported moderate-severe risk for ACPU during their lifetime and 15.4\% in the past year. Multiple regression analyses indicated that higher ACPU was associated with lower body esteem and feminist attitudes and with higher PSMU. The association between body esteem and ACPU was primarily among women with higher PMSU. Findings indicate that ACPU is prevalent and emphasizes the importance of various risk factors, especially low body esteem and PSMU.",

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AB - There is an increase in use of cosmetic procedures (CP) worldwide. Research suggests that people might develop addictive cosmetic procedures use (ACPU). We aimed to assess the prevalence of ACPU and explore associated risk factors. We collected cross-sectional data from a large sample of Jewish women in Israel aged 25–71 (N = 1614). We measured self-reported ACPU, personality measures (body- and self-esteem, attachment security), attitudes (feminism, anti-aging) and problematic social media use (PSMU). Among women who had CP (n = 710), 20% reported moderate-severe risk for ACPU during their lifetime and 15.4% in the past year. Multiple regression analyses indicated that higher ACPU was associated with lower body esteem and feminist attitudes and with higher PSMU. The association between body esteem and ACPU was primarily among women with higher PMSU. Findings indicate that ACPU is prevalent and emphasizes the importance of various risk factors, especially low body esteem and PSMU.

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Prevalence of addictive use of cosmetic procedures and risk factors among Israeli women

Abstract

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Keywords

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