We declare no competing interests. SRA and TDD are funded by the Welsh Clinical Academic Training Fellowship. SRA received a Paton Masser grant from the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons to support this work. ISW is the surgical Specialty Lead for Health and Care Research Wales; the Chief Investigator for the Scar Free Foundation & Health and Care Research Wales Programme of Reconstructive and Regenerative Surgery Research; an associate editor for the Annals of Plastic Surgery; an editorial board member of BMC Medicine and numerous other editorial board roles. Ethical committee approval has been obtained from Swansea University Medical School Research Ethics Subcommittee (2020-0025). The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.