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1 in 5 Young UK Adults Regret Health Decisions Made on Misinformation
Key Takeaways
- One in five UK adults aged 18–34 has made a health decision they later regretted after relying on false or misleading information, per an LSHTM report released Sept. 28, 2026.
- 38% of respondents aged 18–24 said they knew someone seriously harmed — through preventable disease, delayed treatment or prolonged symptoms — by a decision based on misinformation.
- 61% of those who had encountered health misinformation found it on social media, followed by websites or blogs (30%), family or friends (27%), traditional news media (26%), colleagues (20%) and AI chatbots (19%).
- Topics seen most in the past six months: vaccines (24%), dietary supplements and weight-loss injections (21%), climate change (18%) and mental health (16%).
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DT Editorial Team··via medicalxpress.com