Want to lose weight? Live longer? Lower your stress levels, control your blood sugar or optimize your sleep? An influencer wants to tell you how to do it. And a new report finds many Americans are listening.
Half of U.S. adults under 50 are now getting health and wellness information from influencers or podcasters, according to an analysis published Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The report, which analyzed the profiles of nearly 13,000 health and wellness accounts with at least 100,000 followers on social media, also offers a window into who exactly is giving that advice.
Fewer than one in five were conventional medical professionals, like doctors, dentists or nurses. Many listed another qualification, describing themselves as diet or life coaches, entrepreneurs, or parents in their bios.
The study found that these accounts had vast reach: 8 percent had over a million followers. And about half of consumers of this content said that the influencers had helped them better understand how to be healthy.
“We’re absolutely underestimating wellness influencers,” said Mariah Wellman, who studies digital wellness communities at Michigan State University. “They no longer just shape what we buy or wear,” she said, but also “influence our lifestyle choices, what we put in our bodies.”
The fact that many of the most influential health creators are not a part of the medical establishment is not entirely surprising, said Rachel Moran, a health misinformation researcher at the University of Washington. In fact, that may be a large part of their appeal.
Trust in government health agencies has been falling since the pandemic, and while most Americans still trust their doctors’ health recommendations, the share that say they do has also ticked down in recent years.
Coaches and entrepreneurs, which made up nearly 50 percent of the top influencers, are able to toe the line, Dr. Moran said. They can claim professional health experience without being seen as part of the establishment.
Nearly one in five accounts gave no explanation for why they were qualified to post about health and wellness topics. Even so, they were able to grow huge followings on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
“They didn’t need to establish that kind of credibility or expertise to amass those audiences,” said Galen Stocking, associate director of research at Pew.
Some of the influencers with the largest followings included Jay Shetty, who trained as a monk and now posts mental health advice; Dr. Muneeb Shah, a dermatologist who posts about skin care; and Jen Selter, who posts about fitness and healthy snacks.
The Pew researchers found that some of the influencers cited their personal experiences, such as managing their own medical condition or being a parent, as their primary qualification.
Dr. Wellman said she understood why personal anecdotes were so compelling. Her previous research has found that vulnerability and transparency are increasingly important factors in people’s decisions about whom to trust for health information. Sharing their own weight loss experience or cancer diagnosis is a fast way to build trust.
But there are dangers to applying someone’s personal experience to your own life, Dr. Moran said.
“The misinformation part comes in, not necessarily because something isn’t true, but because it just it can’t be generalized,” she said.
Users reported hearing about a wide range of topics: weight loss, mental health, dietary supplements, personal appearance and more. Dr. Wellman, who has studied these influencers since 2016 when the content was mainly focused on fitness, said this showed just how expansive the wellness industry had become.
The new report did not examine whether influencers’ posts were evidence based. But in a follow-up survey, the researchers found that about 20 percent of Americans who consume wellness content online said the information was “extremely or very different” from the advice of their own medical providers.
Many doctors and public health experts are wary of the rise of wellness influencers, who are often behind viral health misinformation, like the claim that sunscreen causes cancer and nicotine can reverse Alzheimer’s.
Some doctors have tried competing online for the trust and attention of social media users, either by creating their own explanatory content or by debunking misinformation from other content creators.
Last month, the American Medical Association launched a new podcast, “Health vs. Hype,” that aims to fact-check “wellness trends and health claims from influencers filling our social media feeds every day.”
While some physicians have found large audiences online, they are still in the minority.
Health misinformation researchers are skeptical that flooding social media with more medical professionals is the answer. Dr. Wellman cautioned that they would have a hard time reaching the people who don’t already agree with them.
Dr. Moran said they would also have to grapple with an inconvenient truth on the internet: nuanced, evidenced-based health information often doesn’t travel as far as the promise of a miracle cure or a personal anecdote from an influencer.
“They offer certainty: ‘Buy this product, take agency over your life in this way, sign up for this program of mine,’” Dr. Moran said. “Medicine can’t always offer you that.”