Contextualizing the Impact of Pop Culture on Breast Implant Illness and its Medical Relevance

Introduction: Despite a lack of data demonstrating causation, there is growing concern over breast implants and systemic illness. This study examines the impact of rising public interest in breast implant illness (BII) and its implications on breast implant removals (BIR). Methods: A Google Trends (GT) analysis of each year between 2010 and 2022 was performed globally, and then separately for the United States alone (US), using the search terms “capsular contracture,” “breast implant illness,” and “breast implant(s) removal”. Linear regression was performed to determine significant correlations. Data on BII-related Facebook advocacy groups, relevant pop culture events, numbers of BIR surgeries, and number of BII-related publications were collected and analyzed alongside GT data to determine relevance. Results: For global GT, there was a significant relationship between “breast implant illness” and “breast implant(s) removal” in 2016 (R²=0.62, β =0.33, p<0.01), 2020 (R²=0.53, β =0.23, p=0.01), and 2022 (R²=0.60, β =0.44, p=0.01). In the US, 2016 (R²=0.53, β =1.75, p=0.01) 2018 (R²=0.61, β =1.93, p<0.01) and 2020 (R²=0.72, β=0.91, p<0.01) were significant. In 2020, “capsular contracture” and “breast implant(s) removal” was significant in the US (R²=0.58, β=0.4, p=0.01). In 2016, Facebook was the platform for the largest BII advocacy group and in 2020 YouTube was the platform for the first BII documentary and TEDx talk. From 2010 to 2020, PubMed publications containing “ASIA” and “BII” increased 24-fold and ASPS reports on BIR rose 70%. Conclusion: This study suggests that BII is a topic of global concern and has implications on both academic medicine and clinical practice. 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.