What is driving the ever-increasing interest in Health and Lifestyles among netizens?

As Hippocrates once said, “Health is the greatest of human blessings.” The significance of maintaining a healthy mind and body can never be overstated. A crucial subject of paramount global importance, according to NLM, between 70-90% of users seek health-related information online. 

Health is a thriving industry growing at an extremely fast pace, with its revenue up by 135% in the last 4 years. Approximately 7% of all Google searches are health-related and there are 70,000 health-related searches per minute, every day. 

We’re nearing that time of the year when there’s a lot of talk about resolutions and fitness goals. Around New Year, that is, the 4-month period from November 1st to February 28th, reads for health and lifestyles increase by 57%. If we measure reads for lifestyle content separately, the increase is 107%, while general content reads decrease by 5%. 

Decoding the relationship between users and the affinity towards Health & Lifestyles

Health and Lifestyle are the topics with the strongest growth during the year's first quarter. This is during a period when all other topics are struggling to recover from the reader drop that occurs during the holidays every year. But what are they reading about? 

We at Seedtag analyzed over 2.8 billion article visits from 14 countries over the last 12 months using our proprietary Network Level Analysis and Custom AI technologies. We researched to understand the most relevant articles and trends for health-related content. 

Firstly, let’s debunk some myths.

• It was predicted that, after the pandemic, users were going to switch their attention towards virtual medical consultations. Our data showed that less than 0.2% of the articles mention online consultations as a topic, thus depicting that it has very low relevance in the media.
• The rising number of users wanting to be in control of their health alluded that the new main usage for tech wearables is health. However, our data revealed that less than 0.1% of the articles mention this topic. They are still viewed as a gadget and not a health device.
• All the fervor around mental health and the topic generating many headlines gave the impression that it was one of the main interests of users. However, the research showed that mental health content attracts 15% less interest than average health content.
• Weight Loss is another vastly discussed topic influenced by fashion and wellbeing. Our data indicated that weight loss attracts just 1% more interest than average health content.

So, what is actually driving user interest?

Two main areas contribute to the health readership - Research and Lifestyles.

• Users find content about medical research especially interesting. They want to stay updated on the latest medical advancements and receive trustworthy information. Compared to average health content, research receives a 7% higher positive sentiment and garners 18% more interest.
• Users also want to improve their habits and routines, Fitness is viewed as a key tool in the path to staying healthy. Articles about sleeping, eating, and staying active are becoming increasingly trendy. Lifestyle-related content gains +60% positive sentiment and 32% more interest. 

While these topics align well with users independently, content that covers both topics together rates even higher. For example, articles backed by scientific research that suggest a lifestyle change that will help users improve their health, fit perfectly within the realm of current interest trends. Collectively, they are precisely what users are looking for, thus unlocking a greater uplift in interest.

• 34% more interest than the health content average 
• 70% more positive sentiment than the health content average

The opportunity: Lifestyles backed by Research

Based on our research, here’s how we can define the audience: These users adopt science-backed strategies to improve their well-being and health through lifestyles, habits, and routines. These cover areas like physical activity, cognition, longevity, nutrition, fitness, sleep, and disease prevention. Key principles include regular physical activity, a balanced diet, ample sleep, and healthy habits.

Their top categories of interest include:

• Healthy Living - 48%
• Food & Drink -  25%
• Medical Health - 15%
• Other - 12%

More details on the audience distribution

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