Pew: 40% of U.S. Adults Get Health Advice From Influencers

Washington. Four in 10 U.S. adults say they have gotten health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts, according to a Pew Research Center Data Labs report released Thursday.

Pew found the share rises to half among adults under 50, placing creator driven health guidance inside the mainstream of how Americans learn about fitness, weight loss, mental health, beauty, lifestyle changes and personal medical questions.

The report does not say influencer health content is generally wrong. It shows a more complicated picture: many Americans encounter the content by chance, many say it helps them understand how to be healthy, and most do not fully trust it.

What Pew Studied

Pew Research Center said it identified 6,828 prominent health and wellness influencers and analyzed 12,800 social media accounts tied to them. The study included people with at least one account above 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, along with hosts of top ranked health and wellness podcasts aimed at U.S. audiences.

Pew paired that account analysis with two nationally representative American Trends Panel surveys. Its methodology page says Wave 173 was conducted June 9 to 15, 2025, among 5,023 respondents, and Wave 182 was conducted Oct. 20 to 26, 2025, among 5,111 respondents.

Pew said the influencer account review relied on profile bios and public account information. That means the study measured how influencers present themselves, not whether every claimed credential was independently verified.

Who Is Giving The Advice

Pew found that 41% of health and wellness influencers described themselves as some type of health care professional. Another 31% described themselves as coaches, while 28% described themselves as entrepreneurs.

The same Pew report said many influencers cite life experience, including medical conditions, disabilities, fitness journeys or parenting, as part of how they frame their authority.

Pew said its account review found that many health and wellness influencers describe themselves as health care professionals, while a majority do not.

Photo by Mona Hassan Abo-Abda via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Americans Find It

Pew said two thirds of health and wellness influencer consumers mostly get the information because they happen to come across it. One third said they are directly looking for it.

Pew found that visual and video platforms dominate the influencer side of that environment. The report said 86% of health and wellness influencers in the study had Instagram accounts, 62% had TikTok accounts and 45% had YouTube accounts.

Pew also found that 41% of influencer consumers said making a change in their health or lifestyle was a major reason they turn to influencers. Among consumers ages 18 to 29, Pew said one third cited entertainment as a major reason.

Trust Is Mixed

Pew's trust analysis found that only 10% of health and wellness influencer consumers said they trust all or most of the information they get from these influencers. The largest share, 65%, said they trust some of it, while 24% said they trust not too much or none of it.

Pew wrote: "Just one-in-ten health and wellness influencer consumers say they trust all or most of the information they get from these influencers."

The same analysis found that 54% of influencer consumers said the information helped them better understand how to be healthy. Pew also found that 12% said it made them more confused and 34% said it had not made much difference.

The report found a worry gap among younger adults. Pew said 26% of influencer consumers overall reported that the information made them more worried about their overall health. Among consumers ages 18 to 29, that share rose to 36%.

What They Hear About

Pew's topics analysis found that a third or more of health and wellness influencer consumers often hear about fitness, weight loss and beauty or personal appearance.

Pew said younger adults are especially likely to hear about fitness and mental health. It also found that women were about twice as likely as men to say they often hear about beauty and personal appearance, 44% compared with 20%.

The topic mix matters because these are areas where advice can range from low risk habit tips to claims about treatment, body image, supplements or mental health.

The Surgeon General's health misinformation advisory defines misinformation as information that is false, inaccurate or misleading according to the best available evidence at the time. The advisory says, "Misinformation spreads especially easily on social media and online retail sites, as well as via search engines."

HHS also says health professionals can use technology and media platforms to share accurate health information with the public. That recommendation shows the policy tension: digital channels can spread bad information, but they are also where many people are already looking or listening.

Photo by SAMHSA via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

What People Are Saying

"Four-in-ten U.S. adults and half of those under the age of 50 say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts," Pew Research Center said in its report.

"Just one-in-ten health and wellness influencer consumers say they trust all or most of the information they get from these influencers," Pew Research Center said in its trust analysis.

"Misinformation spreads especially easily on social media and online retail sites, as well as via search engines," the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General says in its health misinformation advisory.

The Big Picture

Pew's report shows health and wellness influencers have become a major information layer between Americans and formal medical institutions.

Medical providers remain a central source of health information, according to Pew's broader health research cited in the new package. But the new report shows that many Americans also get advice from people whose credentials, business models and personal experiences vary widely.

For consumers, the practical question is not whether every influencer is reliable or unreliable. Pew's data suggests the better question is how Americans evaluate advice when it arrives through entertainment feeds, podcasts and social platforms rather than through a clinical visit.

For public health officials and medical professionals, the report points to a communication challenge. The audience is already in creator spaces. The credibility test is happening there too.