The trend: Gen Z and millennial consumers are turning to some alternative sources of healthcare information nearly as often as they do their primary care physicians, according to Aflac’s 2025 Wellness Matters Survey.
Aflac and Kantar Profiles surveyed 2,000 US adults ages 18 to 65 in January 2025.
Younger consumers are avoiding the doctor: Nearly two-thirds of millennials (62%) and Gen Zers (61%) say they’ve put off a screening or preventive test at some point, the highest among all generations, per Aflac.
- Logistics concerns, such as scheduling and transportation challenges, top the list of reasons why consumers of all ages skip regular medical checkups. Gen Z and millennial respondents (51% in each age group) cite this barrier more than other generations.
- More Gen Zers than other generations (32%) said they don’t keep up with routine visits due to not liking or trusting doctors.
- Younger people are generally healthy and aren’t recommended to get certain preventive screenings. However, Gen Zers and millennials are the most likely generations to put off health services that aren’t age-dependent, such as blood tests and STD screenings, the survey found.
Digging deeper: Younger generations are also the least likely to consult their primary care physician when they have a medical question or concern.
- Fewer Gen Zers (37%) and millennials (36%) than average (48%) say they’ve conferred with their primary care physician about a health concern in the last year.
- But one-third in each generation report looking up information about a health issue on a search engine.
- 36% of Gen Zers and 31% of millennials have turned to friends and family, higher than any other generation.
- About one-quarter in each of the younger cohorts went to social media, higher than any other generation.
- And 13% of both Gen Zers and millennials used a genAI tool, again topping all other generations.