Knowledge and attitude about botulinum toxins and dermal fillers among females attending the primary health care centers in Baghdad

Background: Knowledge and attitude about botulinum toxins and dermal fillers need to be expanded in the community with the dramatic increase of these procedures nowadays in our country with financial burden and wrong practice and going to ineligible people.
Objective: To find out the prevalence of esthetic procedures and reasons behinds seeking these procedures and to measure the knowledge level and attitude about the use of botulinum toxins and dermal fillers among females.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in the primary health care centers in Baghdad. A questionnaire had been given to 400 females by direct interview to collect the needed information.
Results: Only 22% of studied sample practice filler and Botox for cosmetic reasons. 43.8% of them are within the age group of 30-39 years, 84.4% of them were married, 68.9% were employed. Mainly 31% to counteract the aging process, most of them performed these procedures in medical clinics; only 15.3% did it at beauty centers. 61.5% of the studied sample had an average level of knowledge about cosmetic procedures.
Conclusion: The prevalence of cosmetic procedures is relatively low as about one quarter of the participants underwent these procedures. The rate of poor knowledge is higher in subjects who did not undergo esthetic procedure.