Millennials: the wellness generation

Millennials (people aged 25 to 40 years of age) are rather preoccupied with their own health and wellness. This is the generation that smokes less, exercises more and takes proactive steps to monitor their health. Fitness monitors track steps, diet apps monitor food consumption and sound apps track sleeping patterns.

They are also the most likely generation to personalise their healthcare, with gut microbiome tests that guide what to eat and what to avoid, glucose trackers like Zoe that measure how certain food types might impact gut inflammation, and DNA tests that identify potential future illnesses.

Hall & Partners’ Patient Trendscoping: What You Need to Know About Patients of the Future study, conducted in association with ThinkNext, is a large global healthcare research study conducted on attitudes to future healthcare. It reveals that, despite their intense preoccupation and action around their own health and fitness, both Generation Z and millennials exhibit a change in the way that they engage with current healthcare systems.

Nearly half of younger people globally claim they don’t have time to attend a face-to-face doctor’s appointment, for example, which perhaps masks many other factors that our study shows make today’s healthcare systems seem inaccessible.

Around one in four people across all age groups in the UK and US (26% in UK and 22% in the US), for example, feel dismissed and not taken seriously by healthcare professionals (HCPs) when discussing their symptoms. When it comes to some harder-to-diagnose conditions, the percentage of patients that are being alienated rises, to 37% for depression, 43% for autoimmune conditions and it can be as high as 50% for neurodivergent conditions.

The other key factor is their attitude to health generally. There is clear evidence that attitudes to health are changing across generations and countries. For example, 71% of people globally prefer to avoid taking medications when there is a natural or dietary alternative, with this figure highest for millennials.

Interestingly, millennials are more likely to say that length of life is more important than quality of life versus other generations. In contrast, baby boomers (aged 60+) are much more likely to desire a positive quality of life versus other generations. This suggests that these concerns may manifest at the time when more friends, relatives and peers around the same age become ill.

‘Around one in four people across all age groups in the UK and US feel dismissed and not taken seriously by HCPs when discussing their symptoms’

Living a good quality life, rather than as long a life as possible, is important to more people in the UK (43%), US and Japan (both 42%) compared to those in Germany and China.

Globally, 60% of people are looking for recommendations on the most suitable diet, for example by analysing their DNA so that they can proactively avoid potential genetic propensity to illness and to improve their health.

In China, 74% look for personalised guidance on healthcare. This is no surprise given that many Chinese people already understand the importance of maintaining a healthy and balanced body and still undertake traditional Chinese medicine practices such as acupuncture and the use of traditional Chinese medicine. This is compared to 64% in the US, 54% in the UK, 50% in Japan and 44% in Germany.

Once again, however, it is these younger generations, Gen Z and millennials, who are taking a more proactive interest in their healthcare (73% and 65% respectively) compared to Gen X and baby boomers (54% and 47% respectively). This change has been driven by a lot of discussion on social media and growing recognition of how diet impacts general health and specific medical conditions, such as the link of sugar levels to inflammation.  Even the respected Mayo Clinic has entered this space, providing guidance on diet with specific recommendations of adjustments for certain illnesses. The awareness of the impact of our diet on the environment may also be playing its part, as more people adopt a vegan diet.

These dynamics are also part of a bigger desire by millennials (and possibly Generation Z) to get the most, or have the best, of everything. In this case, they are looking to achieve optimum health with this holistic view of their health that includes medications and engagements with HCPs, where needed and if relevant.

Younger patients also recognise that there are no quick cures for many chronic illnesses, so their focus is on how to best live with their condition. This leads to questions around the best diet or exercise regime that HCPs are often not equipped to answer.

They also want advice on how to tell their friends, family and partners about their conditions or when to tell their employers about their diagnosis.

In part this explains why millennials and Gen Zs living with chronic illnesses are turning to social media influencers, and why there is a growing number of digital health apps to manage their health and provide the guidance about living with their conditions, as HCPs may not be not equipped to answer these wider questions.

The younger generations expect healthcare on demand, but it comes at a cost. In the UK, the NHS free healthcare just can’t provide such personalised healthcare on demand. In the US, different issues such as affordability of healthcare and even discrimination come into play, with 16% having felt discriminated against by HCPs because of their age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or weight.

Turning to medical ‘influencers’ is one way that these younger generations are taking control. For example, 33% of Gen Z and 26% of millennials (compared to 5% of baby boomers) globally will use social media to discuss illness and health concerns.

Even when they do visit a doctor, 29% of US Gen Z and 32% of millennials ask to be prescribed based on information they have read on a website, and 20% of Gen Z specifically request treatments they had heard about from another patient or influencer.  This compares to just 7% of baby boomers who ask to be prescribed based on online information and 4% of the same group who reference treatment information from other patients or influencers.

The proliferation of preventative healthcare apps, diagnostic test kits and virtual consultations certainly make it easier for younger, as well as older, generations to take proactive steps to ensure their desired better quality of life and alleviate their clear discomfort of visiting HCPs. Even the NHS is launching mid-life MOTs for more than 15 million adults over the age of 40, using at-home blood testing kits.

‘33% of Gen Z and 26% of millennials (compared to 5% of baby boomers) globally will use social media to discuss illness and health concerns’

For brands navigating the changes in patient focus from reactive to proactive management of their health and wellness, it is essential to understand how these dynamics are changing the patient journey and the decisions that patients and caregivers make. For example, how often patients are requesting treatment and where they want to receive this care.

With an entire generation, and more people generally, taking a distinctively alternative and personal approach to their health and well-being, pharmaceutical brands need to rethink how they position their brands, communicate their advantages in the context of a desire for people to live their best lives, avoid medication and seek natural alternatives. For example, emphasising natural ingredients or processes in products, or exploring different treatment frequencies to allow patients to live without reminders of their illness for longer (eg, six-month treatment intervals) or creating new ways to engage with patients digitally will both be important.

They also need to look at how they engage with these new communication channels.  Patient influencers act and expect to be engaged with differently compared to more traditional influencers such as Patient Advisory Groups (PAGs). Often, they will not communicate directly on behalf of a pharmaceutical company. However, they will share and use materials and good content from pharma brands if they agree with them.

Pharmaceutical companies also need to properly map out where companion digital health tools, therapies and diagnostics can deliver the value that younger generations want. They are not likely to be patient in using symptom trackers or other tools that require a lot of manual effort, since they expect the tools either to focus directly on their specific need or be as automatic to use as possible.

Now is the time for healthcare systems and pharmaceutical companies to harness this new age of digital health. By redesigning the delivery of healthcare, they will not only meet the needs of a new generation of patients, but help older generations too.

Lucy Ireland is a Partner at Hall & Partners