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Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026

Do the majority of Americans use social media to get health information?

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
yes

In two recent polls, a majority of U.S. adults said they use social media to get health information.

July 2025 by KFF, a leading health policy research nonprofit: 55% said they use social media “to find health information and advice” at least occasionally. Less than one in 10 said “most” of the information is trustworthy.

September 2024 by Healthline: 52% said they learned from social media health and wellness tools, resources, trends, or products they tried in the past year. About 77% expressed at least one negative view, such as “there is a lot of conflicting information.”

An April 2024 medical journal article said that over one-third of social media users perceived high levels of health misinformation, and two-thirds reported “high perceived discernment difficulty.”

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is conducting a long-term study to determine how social media affects the physical/mental health of adolescents.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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