Nearly 6 in 10 Young Women Get Health Information from Influencers, Pew Survey Finds
核心洞察
A fall 2025 Pew Research Center (搜索) survey finds 57% of U.S. women ages 18 to 29 get health and wellness information from influencers, 10 percentage points higher than young men.
Young women are especially likely to encounter influencer content on beauty and appearance (51%) and alternative medicine, while comparable shares of both groups hear about mental health and weight loss.
About half of young women (51%) cite wanting to make a health or lifestyle change as a major reason for turning to influencers, versus 37% of young men.
A fall 2025 Pew Research Center (搜索) survey reveals that 57% of U.S. women ages 18 to 29 say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers — a figure 10 percentage points higher than the share of young men. The finding underscores how non-clinical voices on social media and podcasts are playing an increasingly prominent role in how younger Americans learn about their health, even as healthcare providers remain the most common source of health information overall.
The analysis draws on two surveys of U.S. adults conducted via the Center's American Trends Panel: one surveying 5,023 adults in June 2025 and a second surveying 5,111 adults in October 2025. Pew Research Center (搜索) conducted the study to better understand who Americans may be hearing from when they seek health and wellness information on social media.
Topics Young Men and Women Encounter
The survey asked respondents about seven topics they might hear about from health and wellness influencers. Half or more of both young men and young women report hearing about nearly all of these topics at least sometimes.
Young women are especially likely to say they often see influencer content about beauty and appearance. Among those who get health and wellness information from influencers, 51% of young women say they often hear about this topic, compared with a much smaller share of young men (18%).
Young women are also around twice as likely as young men to say they often see content about alternative medicine. By contrast, comparable shares of young men and young women report often hearing about mental health and weight loss from influencers — a third or more of both groups say they often hear about these topics. Around half or more of both groups say they often see fitness content.
Motivations for Turning to Influencers
The survey also explored why young men and women seek health and wellness information from influencers. Around half of young women who get such information from influencers (51%) say that wanting to make a change in their health or lifestyle is a major reason for doing so, compared with 37% of young men.
Somewhat larger shares of young women than young men also cite hearing from people who share their background or beliefs (23% vs. 14%) or learning about things they don't want to ask their doctor about (19% vs. 10%) as major reasons for getting information from these influencers.
The findings point to a shifting information landscape in which social media influencers and podcasts serve as an additional or alternative source of health guidance for younger populations, particularly young women, even as medical professionals continue to be the most common source of health information among U.S. adults.