In this report we present a view of shopper attitudes, behaviors and perceptions of health and wellness. We examine what it looks like now vs. the recent past, as well as how we expect it to evolve and change in the future. 

• We saw that shoppers’ ratings of their overall health hit a major pothole this year. Inflation and the pressure of increased household expenses has impacted health, with improved health perception rising with income.
• We coined the term “well-washing” to speak to the shopper view that the word wellness is over-used and often mis-used, and provide thoughts on how to improve the dialogue.
• Physical health used to be the focus, but the evolved definition of wellness now includes mental health, spiritual health and even the “new OTC’s” – Marijuana and CBD.
• We explore the big business of weight management, from foods and beverages those who are actively trying to maintain/lose weight are eating more and less of, to the experience of those on GLP-1s.
• We see shoppers returning to a preference for in-person care and trusting traditional sources most. Telehealth use declined and new online sources for health information, like YouTube, Reddit and AI are used, but not trusted. And we found a concerning drop in the trust of pharmacists.

Despite the challenges, the good news is that there is a universal desire among shoppers to improve their health. You have an opportunity to help them!

About this report: This report is the second report for 2024 that is part of the How America Shops® shopper insight series. The sample is a national online survey of 1507 household shoppers and the survey was conducted in May 2024.