Key takeaways: 

  • Younger cohorts rely less on doctors and medical websites, and more on friends, family, and social media for health advice.
  • This shift signals a growing generational trust gap, with Gen Z’s perceptions shaped by faster, peer-driven information environments.

In the recent past, the U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape has been marked by steady disruption. Data breaches have exposed vulnerabilities in patient privacy, major retail pharmacy chains have announced widespread closures, and the prices of everyday medicines and the administration's efforts to keep them in check have made the news.

For Gen Z, these developments shape the context of their earliest experiences with the healthcare system. As the first generation navigating adulthood in a digital-first, post-pandemic healthcare system, their expectations for affordability, transparency, and ease of access could be different than those of older Americans. Watching how their trust in drugmakers and healthcare providers shifts offers an early glimpse into where public sentiment may be headed.

Americans’ satisfaction with drug Cos

According to YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks public perception daily across a range of brand metrics, our data shows generational differences in the Satisfaction metric.

Compared with this time last year, Gen Z’s Satisfaction with drug manufacturers (taken as a sector) in the U.S. has fallen sharply - sliding from a net score of 7 in September 2024 to 4 by September 2025, a statistically significant drop. Millennials show a similar dip, falling from 9 to 6 over the same period. Both younger generations are converging downward, a pattern that may point to shifting perceptions of how pharmaceutical companies serve them.

By contrast, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation have held steady. Gen X has hovered consistently around 9, while Boomers remain at 11 and the Silent Generation sees no great change.

Curious how different generations feel about your brand? Speak with us.

Value scores tell a similar story

The same generational split shows up in the Value metric, which measures whether people feel drug manufacturers offer “good value for money.” Compared with this time last year, both Gen Z and Millennials are now lower. Gen Z fell from a net score of around 7 in September 2024 to 2 by September 2025, while Millennials slipped from 5 to 1 in the same period.

Meanwhile, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation have held their ground. Gen X’s scores fluctuated more sharply — briefly dipping just below zero in early 2025 — but ended up close to where it was this time last year. Boomers and the Silent Generation, on the other hand, remained largely stable.

The shifts in Satisfaction and Value show that younger Americans are not just less content with how drug manufacturers operate. Older generations, by contrast, continue to show steadier levels of trust, suggesting they may be more anchored in long-term experiences with the healthcare system.

But trust in pharma and healthcare doesn’t form in a vacuum. It’s shaped by where people get their information from, whether that’s health professionals, government agencies, or social media feeds. So, the next question is: who does Gen Z actually rely on when it comes to health information?

While doctors and health professionals remain the single most important source of health and wellness information for Gen Z, 56% of them say they rely on medical experts for health information compared with nearly 7 in 10 adults in older generations (69%). Instead, Gen Z are more likely than others to turn to friends and family (48% vs. 41%) and especially social media (38% vs. 22%) for wellness tips and advice.

When it comes to established online resources, older generations are more likely than Gen Z to use health and medical websites (46% vs. 39%) and traditional media such as news articles (22% vs. 15%) or magazines (11% vs. 5%). Gen Z, by contrast, engages less with these formal information channels and more with peer-driven and digital-first spaces.

For the industry, this signals a need to engage differently, with more transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness, if it hopes to rebuild confidence among the consumers who will define the future of healthcare trust.

Methodology:

YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. The drug manufacturers Satisfaction score is based on the question: 'Of which of the following drug brands would you say that you are a satisfied/dissatisfied customer of?’ Scores are reported as net scores from –100 to +100, based on daily surveys of US adults. Data is weighted using a propensity scoring methodology with targets from the American Community Survey (ACS) to ensure representation by age, gender, race, education, and region. Figures are shown as a 12-week moving average with sample size ranging from 6,113–55,504 (varies by generation and date) between September 2, 2024 - September 1, 2025.

YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. The drug manufacturers Value score is based on the question: 'Which of the following drug brands do you think represents good value for money? By that we don't mean "cheap," but that the brand offers a customer a lot in return for the price paid?' Scores are reported as net scores from –100 to +100, based on daily surveys of US adults. Data is weighted using a propensity scoring methodology with targets from the American Community Survey (ACS) to ensure representation by age, gender, race, education, and region. Figures are shown as a 12-week moving average with sample size ranging from 4,735–59,577 (varies by generation and date) between September 2, 2024 - September 1, 2025.

YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data through rolling surveys, rather than a single limited questionnaire. Figures are drawn from responses collected between September 1, 2024 - September 2, 2025, using a 52-week dataset updated weekly. Data is nationally representative of adults (18+) in the US and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race.

Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash