Half of U.S. adults under 50 turn to health influencers online
A Pew survey found many younger adults get health guidance from influencers and podcasts, even though most of those voices are not medical professionals.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
A Pew Research Center survey found that half of U.S. adults under 50 use influencers and podcasts for health information, often on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. The findings show how nonmedical voices are gaining ground in health guidance at a time when other polling shows declining confidence in doctors and health care.
Pew said many people encounter health and wellness posts while using social media rather than searching for them directly. The content often appears when users are looking for ways to improve their health or address health concerns.
Pew’s analysis found that many health and wellness influencers present themselves as having some type of health care expertise. Most, however, were not medical professionals, according to Pew. The group included mothers, coaches and entrepreneurs who used their own experiences with weight loss, illness or caregiving as the basis for advice.
Personal stories often stand in for credentials
Women accounted for two-thirds of the health influencers in Pew’s review. Pew found that women were more likely than men to point to personal experience as a form of expertise, especially experience involving children.
The gender gap was especially clear in how influencers described parenthood. According to Pew, women were three times as likely to mention being a mother as men were to mention being a father.
Pew also found that Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, along with people who do not have health insurance, were particularly likely to get health advice from influencers. Fortune noted that those groups have historically been underserved by the medical establishment.
Dr. Alok Patel, a physician at Stanford Children’s Hospital, told ABC News in response to the Pew survey that health professionals need to reach patients where they are, build trust, be present in communities and be available online.
Trust in doctors has weakened
The growth of influencer-driven health advice comes as public trust in medical professionals has fallen. Gallup found that Americans’ ratings of doctors’ ethics have dropped 14 percentage points since 2021, reaching the lowest level Gallup has recorded since the mid-1990s.
Gallup polling also found that fewer than half of U.S. adults rate the overall quality of health care in the country as “excellent” or “good.” That figure is down 10 percentage points since 2020, after Gallup said it had declined each year.
Fortune has also reported on broader concerns about health misinformation online. It cited findings that seven in 10 people worldwide believe debunked health myths and that nearly half of Gen Z patients disregard doctors’ advice in favor of friends or social media.
Pew’s findings do not show that all influencer health content is false. They do show that a large share of younger adults now receives health messages from people whose authority may come from personal experience rather than medical training.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.