Skewed Distribution of Medical Spas and Aesthetic Physician Practices: A Cross-Sectional Market Analysis.

BACKGROUND Medical spas have experienced a recent rise in popularity by consumers. Their regulations vary from state to state, especially concerning oversight and credentialing. A majority of aesthetic physicians were shown to have a medical spa within 5 minutes of their workplace. OBJECTIVE Our study investigated the current market distribution of medical spas and physician practices in the aesthetic field. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the 30 most populous cities, data were collected for medical spas and aesthetic physicians. Descriptive ratios were calculated, and various local factors were examined. RESULTS The cities with the greatest number of medical spas were New York (374), Houston (297), and Los Angeles (227). The cities with the greatest number of aesthetic physicians were New York (365), Houston (135), and Chicago (122). Population size had significant relationships with number of medical spas (p < .000001) and aesthetic physicians (p < .000001). For ratio of medical spas to aesthetic physicians, the top cities were Las Vegas (9.17), Denver (3.86), and San Jose (3.65). In total, 73.3% of cities had more medical spas than aesthetic physicians. CONCLUSION Certain cities have experienced an unequal distribution of medical spas. Further research should examine how this affects consumer decision-making for the selection of practice settings.