Millennials crave healthy options
Millennials often are perceived as healthier than baby boomers. Yet, one commonality this generation has with their baby boomer grandparents is that they worry about their health almost exactly as much as boomers do — 77% of both generations say they worry at least a little about getting a serious illness; 77% of adult millennials and 74% of boomers say they worry at least a little about affording the cost of health care — according to a new U.S. survey by Allidura Consumer and GSW, both part of inVentiv Health, and Harris Poll.
In fact, millennial adults worry about their access to health care even more than boomers (69% vs. 60% worry at least a little).
Even as millennials worry, they are proactively seeking, and consuming, healthier solutions found at the local grocery store. As many as 71% believe they’re doing everything they can to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Nearly half of all millennials have used a training program, such as P90X or CrossFit, in the past two years, and more than one-third are willing to pay more for foods they know are either organic or made with all-natural ingredients. Almost one-third (30%) have talked to a nutritionist in the past two years.
While a good proportion of millennials are comfortable consulting a healthcare professional as a nutritionist, they’re not as likely to seek a doctor for preventive care. A majority (62%) see a healthcare professional only when they get sick. That’s significantly more than Gen Xers or baby boomers (46% and 34%, respectively).
Relying on a doctor as a last resort may be a consequence of the easy access to healthcare information online. “There’s never been more health information for millennials to find, so it only makes sense that it’s never been more difficult for them to properly screen, analyze and act on the right data,” said Derek Flanzraich, CEO of Greatist.com, a popular health-and-wellness website for millennials. In fact, this survey data found that 37% of millennials sometimes self-diagnose with health problems that they don’t have. Perpetuating this “search and stress” cycle, 44% say that viewing health information online causes them to worry about their health.
“For millennials, the question isn’t who can help them be healthy, but rather what can help them,” said Leigh Householder, chief innovation officer at GSW. “To millennials, physical health is intricately connected with mental health. So, for brand marketers to be successful in reaching this audience, they must think about health-and-wellness the same way and create solutions that inspire millennials to experience health at any given moment and throughout all aspects of their lives.”
“As society shifts its focus from relying on HCPs to treat disease to taking individual responsibility for prevention and wellness, we wanted to understand how attuned millennials are to their health now, and how it factors into their everyday decision making,” said Tracy Naden, managing director of Allidura Consumer. “What we learned is that millennials’ mindset about health is very much an ever-present personal journey of wellness fueled by food, exercise and social connections.”
That social network of millennials may represent the greatest influencer on healthcare behavior — 84% trust information from people they know personally, as opposed to 60% who trust such high-profile experts as Dr. Oz and 22% who trust celebrity endorsers of health products.