Cosmetic surgery is an increasingly common medical procedure whose ben
efits to patients have not been quantified objectively. The purpose of
this study was to prospectively examine long-term quality-of-life out
comes for patients undergoing elective cosmetic surgery. In this prosp
ective, correlational study of 105 consecutive patients undergoing ele
ctive cosmetic surgery, the parameters of quality-of-life index, depre
ssion, social support and coping were determined preoperatively and at
1- and 6-month intervals postoperatively. The data from the four stud
y instruments were analyzed using Pearson correlation and repeated mea
sures of multivariate analysis of variance for differences in each var
iable over time. The multivariate analysis of variance quality-of-life
index scores for patients improved from baseline preoperative mean le
vels of 3.24 to a mean of 2.56 at 1 month, and then to 2.11 (f = 518.5
, p = < 0.0001) at 6 months postsurgery. Mean scores for depression [d
etermined by using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Sca
le (CES-D)], improved from 11.2 preoperatively to 6.5 at 1 month, and
to 6.3 (f = 79.3, p = < .0001) at 6 months after surgery. Surgical int
ervention produced no significant differences between preoperative and
postoperative ways of coping and social support scores. Cosmetic surg
ery produces positive psychological benefits by significantly improvin
g quality-of-life outcomes that persist long term, without adversely a
ffecting social support and ways of coping.