Trust in health and wellness influencers

About this research

This study looks at health and wellness influencers – individuals with large audiences online who provide information about health and wellness, largely on social media. It includes an in-depth analysis of these influencers’ social media presence, including who they are and how they describe themselves. It also takes a deep dive into Americans’ experiences with getting health and wellness information from social media influencers and podcasts.

Why did we do this?

Medical professionals remain the most common source of health information among U.S. adults. But many get information about their health from sources outside of the doctor’s office, including social media. We conducted this study to better understand who the public might be hearing from when they get health and wellness information on social media and to explore the experiences and motivations of those who engage with this information on these sites.

How did we do this?

This analysis is based on two main data sources.

The first is an analysis of 12,800 social media accounts belonging to 6,828 prominent health and wellness influencers. The influencers included in the study have at least one account with more than 100,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok and post health and wellness content in English aimed at a U.S. audience (or are owned by the hosts of a top-ranked podcast that features this content). We analyzed their profiles to see who these influencers are and how they describe themselves.

Here is more information about how we identified the influencers included in this study and how we defined the different topics and categories we measured in the analysis.

The second set of data comes from two surveys of U.S. adults that asked about their experiences getting health and wellness information from social media influencers and podcasts. One was conducted in June 2025 among 5,023 U.S. adults, and the other was conducted in October 2025 among 5,111 U.S. adults. Both were fielded on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.

Here are the survey questions used for this report, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.

Some 40% of U.S. adults say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts. This analysis takes a deeper dive into these Americans’ experiences with these influencers – how much they trust them, what they learn, and how the information they get makes them feel about their health.

Some of the key takeaways:

• Those who get health and wellness information from these influencers are mixed on how much to trust it: 10% say they trust all or most of the information they get from these influencers, but 24% say they trust not too much or none of it. The largest share (65%) falls somewhere in the middle and says they trust some of it.
• Around half of these consumers say these influencers help them better understand how to be healthy. And young adults stand out as the age group most likely to say the information they get from these influencers makes them more worried about their overall health.

Other parts of this study look at the characteristics of health and wellness influencers themselves, why people follow these influencers and how they find them, and the topics they learn about from them.

Key terms used on this page

In our survey, we asked whether Americans ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or from podcasts. In discussing the findings, we use “health and wellness influencers” to refer to these two sources. We also use “health and wellness influencer consumer” to refer to U.S. adults who say they ever get information about health and wellness from social media influencers or podcasts.

How much people trust information from health and wellness influencers

Just one-in-ten health and wellness influencer consumers say they trust all or most of the information they get from these influencers. More than twice that share (24%) say they trust not too much or none of it.

The largest share – around two-thirds – is in the middle, saying they trust some of this information.

Older adults express more skepticism of the information they get from these influencers than younger age groups. Some 36% of health and wellness influencer consumers ages 65 and older say they trust not too much or none of that information.

Other research by the Pew Research Center has found that those 65 and older are consistently less likely to trust the information they get on social media relative to younger age groups.

How information from health and wellness influencers makes people feel about their health

Many find these influencers to be helpful: 54% of those who get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts say it has helped them better understand how to be healthy. Far fewer (12%) say it has made them more confused about how to be healthy, and 34% say it hasn’t made much difference either way. This pattern tends to show up across demographic groups.

Meanwhile, 26% of these consumers say this information has made them more worried about their overall health. A similar share (22%) says it has made them less worried. About half say it hasn’t made much difference either way.

Younger adults are especially likely to say that information from these influencers makes them feel more worried about their overall health. Some 36% of health and wellness influencer consumers ages 18 to 29 say this.

For more information on demographic breaks, refer to Appendix A.