Wellness influencers focus on fitness, nutrition more than medicine, Pew study finds

Social media influencers focused on health and wellness spend more time talking about fitness and nutrition than medical conditions, according to new data from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday.

Nearly all of them pitch products and services or represent a brand in many of their social media posts, and male influencers are more likely to discuss women’s health than men’s health. In addition, many influencers share details of their daily lives that have nothing to do with wellness in an effort to better connect with audiences.

These were some of the findings researchers discovered after examining 535,512 posts made by 6,334 health and wellness influencers between Feb. 1 and April 30 on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. They analyzed audio, video and captions of the posts.

Past research from Pew determined 40% of U.S. adults and 50% of adults under the age of 50 get their information on health and wellness from social media influencers as well as podcasts, said Regina Widjaya, a Pew computational social scientist and one of the authors of the report, titled "What Do Health and Wellness Influencers Post About?"

"We have already looked into who these people are giving this health information that people are seeing on social media," she said. "Now we want to know what these influencers are talking about."

Looking to make a lifestyle change is a common reason people look to influencers, the report said.

"Health professionals, like your doctor, are still the primary source of health and wellness information," Widjaya said. "But then there are certain things you cannot just keep asking your doctor about. And this is where an influencer helps you tailor your experience and you find the information you are looking for."

Martine Hackett, chair of the population health department at Hofstra University, said posts from these influencers can be helpful to people looking for detailed wellness information that they might not otherwise have access to.

"You can go for your annual health checkup, but if you are younger and don’t have a chronic disease, you might be told to exercise, but they don’t have the time to tell you how," she said. "And you may not be able to go to a nutritionist or a trainer."

Dr. Fatima Daoud Yilmaz, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Stony Brook Medicine, said she found it interesting but not surprising that 30% of male influencers advise on women’s health, as opposed to 24% on male health.

"This goes to show how much of a hot-button topic women's health is," said Daoud, who has almost 400,000 followers on her own health-focused Instagram account. "Historically, women's health has been largely underfunded and understudied ... or people are comfortable talking about menopause and weight loss in midlife."

She also pointed out that women with complex, underdiagnosed health conditions such as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome — previously known as polycystic ovary syndrome — who are looking for more information and a community.

"It was ignored for such a long time and blamed on the patient," she said. "Patients are more outspoken about what they deserve. ... People who have had negative experiences navigating the healthcare system or have issues with access find this as a free, convenient, easy-to-understand format in terms of the medical information that's offered."

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.