Pew Research Center, a US research organisation, has published a set of 2026 studies on the people who post about health and wellness online. This article summarises what they found about who these creators are, what they post and how audiences respond. The findings describe the United States and English-language creators, not the UK or EU.
Who counts as a health and wellness influencer in this research?
The findings only apply to the group Pew set out to study, so the definition matters. According to Pew’s methodology page, the analysis covers individuals, not organisations or brands, who regularly post health and wellness content on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Health and wellness was defined as information or discussion about treatments or lifestyle practices that improve or maintain physical or mental health, including medical advice, personal testimonials and holistic guidance.
Researchers searched for accounts between 19 September and 9 October 2025. They kept US-based, individually run accounts that post mainly in English and have at least 100,000 followers. After filtering for inactivity and for health content in at least 30% of recent posts, and after linking accounts to the same person across platforms, the final dataset covered 6,828 influencers running 12,800 accounts (5,766 on Instagram, 4,124 on TikTok and 2,910 on YouTube).
So this is a research category with a follower threshold. Smaller creators, and creators who post mainly in other languages, are outside it.
What does the profile of these creators look like?
Pew’s May 2026 profile used self-descriptions in account bios. Its main findings were as follows.
| Characteristic | Pew finding |
|---|---|
| Gender | 64% women, 34% men |
| Largest accounts (1 million+ followers) | 46% men |
| Health care professional | 41% |
| Coach | 31% |
| Entrepreneur or business owner | 28% |
| Life experience (for example a condition or fitness journey) | 13% |
| No background mentioned | 16% |
| Platforms | Instagram 86%, TikTok 62%, YouTube 45% |
The professions overlap, which is why the shares add up to more than 100%. Within the health care group, 17% described themselves as conventional medical professionals such as doctors, dentists or nurses, 7% as allied health workers, 7% as complementary and alternative practitioners, 6% as dietitians or nutritionists and 4% as mental health professionals. Pew counted only 8% of influencers as having at least a million followers on their most-followed account, and the average influencer was active on two social media sites.
The gender percentages do not sum to 100. Pew’s methodology says about 16% of genders could not be determined from text and were coded by hand from profile pictures and other cues, so the coding carries some uncertainty.
What do they actually post about?
Pew’s October 2026 report analysed 535,512 posts from 6,334 influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, published between 1 February and 30 April 2026. Posts can cover more than one topic, so shares overlap.
- Healthy living topics (fitness, habits, nutrition, appearance, over-the-counter products and supplements, longevity) appeared in 54% of posts.
- Medical topics (conditions, treatments, mental health, personal experience of healthcare, men’s and women’s health) appeared in 34% of posts.
- Posts mentioning neither made up 30%, and 89% of influencers had at least one such post.
Within healthy living, fitness appeared in 25% of posts, healthy habits in 20% and nutrition in 19%. Within medical topics, medical conditions appeared in 19% of posts and treatments in 14%. Mental health appeared in 7%.
Fitness was also the most common primary topic, applying to 25% of influencers, ahead of nutrition (10%), mental health (5%) and medical conditions (4%). Pew said about six in ten influencers had a clear primary topic at all.
How often do these posts promote something?
Across all posts, 38% promoted a product, service or subscription, according to Pew. At the level of individual creators, 92% promoted at least occasionally. Pew grouped influencers by how much of their feed was promotional:
| Share of an influencer’s posts that promote | Share of influencers |
|---|---|
| None | 8% |
| Fewer than half | 60% |
| More than half | 33% |
Promotion varied sharply by subject. Posts about over-the-counter medications or supplements carried promotion 66% of the time, against 56% for men’s health and personal appearance, and 52% for nutrition and longevity.
Readers in the UK should note that labelling expectations differ by country. The guide to influencer disclosure rules in the UK, US and EU explains how paid and affiliate content is treated in each, and Pew’s figures say nothing about whether the promotions it counted were labelled.
Do these creators cite sources or warn of harm?
Fewer posts point to evidence than promote products. In Pew’s post analysis, 9% of all posts cited an outside source while making a health claim, and 11% warned about a direct health harm. About four in ten of the posts that cited a source also warned of harm.
Health policy was the exception: half of those posts cited an outside source and 46% warned of a specific harm. Policy was a small topic, though, at 2% of posts.
The text-only method matters here. Pew analysed bios and up to ten recent posts, not audio or transcripts, so a spoken source in a video may not have been counted. The figures should be read as a measure of what appears in written posts and captions.
How many Americans use this content, and do they trust it?
Pew’s audience findings come from two surveys on its American Trends Panel: June 2025 (5,023 US adults) and October 2025 (5,111). According to Pew, 40% of US adults say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts.
Among those people, trust was cautious:
- 10% trust all or most of it.
- 65% trust some of it.
- 24% trust not too much or none of it.
Adults aged 65 and over were more sceptical, with 36% saying they trust it not too much or not at all.
Is the information helping or worrying people?
The same consumers were asked about effects. Pew reported that 54% said the content helped them understand better how to be healthy, 12% said it left them more confused and 34% said it made no real difference.
On worry, 26% said it made them more worried about their overall health, 22% said less worried and about half said it made no difference. Among adults aged 18 to 29, 36% said it made them more worried.
These are self-reported impressions. They do not show whether the content was accurate or whether anyone’s health changed as a result.
What the research can and cannot say outside the US
The following points are the publication’s own reading of the data, not Pew’s conclusions.
- A mixed field. With 41% describing themselves as health care professionals and 16% giving no background at all, audiences meet a wide range of credentials. Bios are self-descriptions, and Pew did not verify qualifications.
- Promotion is routine. If roughly a third of creators promote in more than half of their posts, a reader can reasonably ask who pays for a given recommendation. UK readers can read how the advertising regulator approaches complaints in how the ASA handles complaints about influencer ads.
- Checking remains useful. Because only a small share of posts cite sources, cross-checking claims with a health service or regulator is a sensible habit. Ofcom’s description of media literacy is one starting point.
- Different country, different picture. The sample is US-based, English-language and 100,000-plus followers. No figure here should be assumed to apply to UK or EU creators or audiences. A companion study by the same research organisation on news creators is summarised in News Influencers: Who They Are and Who Follows Them.
A picture of a large, commercial and varied field
Pew’s 2026 work describes health and wellness influencers as mostly women, often with a professional or coaching label, active mainly on Instagram and heavily involved in promotion. Roughly four in ten US adults draw on this kind of content, but most of them trust only some of it. What the studies do not settle is accuracy, qualification or health outcomes, and their authors flag limits including the follower threshold, the English-language focus and the text-only analysis.
This article is general information based on published US research, not advice of any kind, including medical advice. Findings are survey and content-analysis estimates as of the dates stated, and platform practices and audience behaviour change over time.
Sources: Pew Research Center (Moms, Coaches, Doctors, Entrepreneurs: Who Are America’s Health and Wellness Influencers?); Pew Research Center (Trust in health and wellness influencers); Pew Research Center (What Do Health and Wellness Influencers Post About?); Pew Research Center (Methodology)
