December 14th, 2021, YouGov
In this piece, we’re rounding up the highlights of a year of health and pharma insights and trends.
The major health story of 2021 won’t be a surprise to anyone: the COVID-19 pandemic has, for the second year running, kept people indoors, impacted perceptions of government, and sparked fears for personal wellbeing, family, and finances among the public. YouGov and Imperial College London’s COVID-19 tracker has collected data on these subjects and more for much of the crisis so far – exploring attitudes to vaccination, institutions, and much more from around the world.
On the global level, though, coronavirus wasn’t the only thing we explored this year: using Profiles data, we explored the relationship between advertising and body image; whether consumers have experienced shortages of medical supplies; calorie counting, and attitudes towards dental care, among many other things.
On a regional level, our UK content spotlighted opinions towards government COVID-19 measures – finding that most think free COVID testing and isolation should continue past March 2022, even if nearly half want to end the Test and Trace scheme – and we also examined attitudes towards tobacco smoking, finding that most Britons want to ban cigarettes and half would outlaw vaping products.
We also found that health brands such as Boots occupied a top-ten berth in our overall brand rankings, and that Britons were more likely to say that availability of public mental health services are a larger barrier to seeking treatment for non-physical ailments than social stigma, lack of awareness, lack of support from employers, or even financial barriers. Beyond that, we profiled Britons according to their attitudes towards fitness.
On the other side of the Atlantic, we dove deep into COVID-19 (most recently highlighting political attitudes towards the Omicron variant), highlighted the drug manufacturers with the best reputations, workout habits, and more. Using BrandIndex, we profiled vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson, explored the correlation between financial health and physical health, and whether consumers are more likely to buy branded or generic drugs. We polled adults in the US and Great Britain about whether or not they’d ban ads for food and drink high in fat, salt, and sugar content on health grounds.
As we head into Christmas, we’ve also prepared a range of stats across multiple sectors in Great Britain – some festive stocking fillers to think on as you prepare for the next year, when we’ll be bringing you even more data-driven content for the health and pharmaceutical industry all over the globe.