Sep 1, 2026 · 11 min · 9 segments
Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, and Saramaya Penacho, Executive Vice President of Health at Edelman, discuss key findings from the…
Saramaya PenachoGuestDoug SimonHostI assume if you believe in stuff that would be highly questioned by seasoned medical experts, you might be less healthy in your life.
But the people who did respond that they believed some of these newer claims, if you will, described themselves as healthy or pretty healthy compared to the other population.
This year in particular, We saw over a 10-point drop compared to the 2025 report, the special report Trust in Health, in confidence to make health decisions.
Even if you feel healthy or characterize yourself as healthy and engage in your health, you're very at a loss of how to make those decisions.
And so we are seeing that the trust in various different groups They're listening to a lot of voices, whether they believe in two or more of the divisive claims or not, but especially that audience, that 70%.
They're searching actively on AI, traditional search, social, friends and family.
Their healthcare provider, who is actually most trusted among all of those groups.
But what that's causing is overload, information overload, huge abundance of, of, of content.
And so where that's leaning is they're not sure what to believe or whatnot.
And it's leaning towards this divisiveness of, I'm not sure how to make a health decision, but I'm still feeling good and seeking out that information and finding these voices and that there's just widespread confusion that continues to happen.
And it is even among any group, regardless of age or demographic or education level.
I assume if you believe in stuff that would be highly questioned by seasoned medical experts, you might be less healthy in your life.
But the people who did respond that they believed some of these newer claims, if you will, described themselves as healthy or pretty healthy compared to the other population.
This year in particular, We saw over a 10-point drop compared to the 2025 report, the special report Trust in Health, in confidence to make health decisions.
Even if you feel healthy or characterize yourself as healthy and engage in your health, you're very at a loss of how to make those decisions.
And so we are seeing that the trust in various different groups They're listening to a lot of voices, whether they believe in two or more of the divisive claims or not, but especially that audience, that 70%.
They're searching actively on AI, traditional search, social, friends and family.
Their healthcare provider, who is actually most trusted among all of those groups.
But what that's causing is overload, information overload, huge abundance of, of, of content.
And so where that's leaning is they're not sure what to believe or whatnot.
And it's leaning towards this divisiveness of, I'm not sure how to make a health decision, but I'm still feeling good and seeking out that information and finding these voices and that there's just widespread confusion that continues to happen.
And it is even among any group, regardless of age or demographic or education level.
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