DCU and MyFitnessPal study on social media health and wellness trends highlights urgent need for digital health literacy

Preliminary findings of research on Gen Z TikTok users and influencers conducted by MyFitnessPal, the leading global nutrition and food tracking app, and the Irish Institute of Digital Business at DCU has identified an urgent need for digital health literacy aimed at younger social media users.

The research has found that 87% of millennial and Gen Z Tik Tok users have used the platform for nutrition and health advice rather than consulting with friends, family or medical professionals. The study was based on responses of 2,000 millennials and Gen Zers across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia to a MyFitnessPal survey in October 2023.

57% said that they are influenced by or frequently adopt nutrition trends they’ve found on the platform and of those influenced by nutrition and health trends on TikTok, 67% said that they adopt at least one of these trends a few times a week. The top reported diets were detoxing, foods that burn stomach fat, and liquid cleanses. Gen Zers are more likely to experiment with drinking chlorophyll water, while Millennials are more likely to try a detox, the cabbage soup diet, and the Carnivore diet. Despite the potential health risks associated with some popular TikTok trends, 30% tried them anyway, while 31% say they have experienced an adverse effect from “fad diet” trends.

In a follow-on study, the research team also found that Gen Zers trust content shared by qualified registered dietitians more than nutrition information shared by unqualified influencers. This underscores the importance of licensed professionals helping to champion scientific truth across social media.

To further understand the impact of platforms like TikTok on nutrition trends, the research team analysed over 67,000 videos using Artificial Intelligence to compare them against public health and nutrition guidelines. The preliminary findings suggest that only 2.1% of the analysed nutrition content proved to be accurate when compared to these guidelines. The remaining content was either inaccurate, partially accurate, or classified as uncertain due to ambiguity, lack of evidence, or evolving research. The DCU team comprised Professor Theo Lynn, Dr Lisa van der Werff, Dr Grace Fox and Dr Guto Leoni Santos.

Prof Theo Lynn, Professor of Digital Business at DCU Business School said:

“With more people turning to social media for health and wellness advice, it’s critical for us as a community to enhance our digital health literacy. This involves being aware of the experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness of the source. It’s important to understand that these viral TikTok trends often lack the rigour of controlled experiments and evidence-based scientific consensus, and, therefore, should not be trusted as a reliable source of information.”

Speaking about the results, Katie Keil, MyFitnessPal Chief Marketing Officer said:

“The findings highlight the fact that people need to better understand what’s in the food they’re eating, dig more into the science behind social trends, and find trusted sources to guide them. There are a lot of great licensed registered dietitians out there, along with medical professionals and credible brands, that are sharing evidence-based content on social media. We encourage people to find and follow those trusted sources.

People are relying on certain social media signals – such as follower count or virality of a video – to guide food choices. But those may not be good indicators of high quality nutritional health content.”

To help close the knowledge gap, MyFitnessPal and Dublin City University developed a resource that can serve as a checklist and tool to help individuals spot nutrition inaccuracies on social media and increase digital health literacy.