Hispanics are less likely to see healthcare providers as a credible resource to treat a health condition. As a result, Hispanics tend to take their health and wellness into their own hands. Among four Hispanic consumer segments identified based on their attitudes toward health and wellness, only one segment, which accounts for about one quarter of Hispanics, embraces medical professionals. Hispanics in other groups turn to natural remedies, self-medicating, or they explore all other alternatives. COVID-19 disrupted Hispanics’ traditional approach to health and wellness in that preventing exposure to the virus became the top priority. As the US emerges from the pandemic and the vaccine becomes more broadly available, brands will have an opportunity to challenge Hispanics’ beliefs and present them with new health and wellness solutions.

• The impact of COVID-19 on Hispanics’ approach toward health and wellness

• The stark differences among Hispanics’ attitudes toward health and wellness and what it means for brands

• How to help Hispanics reach their health and wellness goals

• What health and wellness mean to Hispanics and the implications for brands

This Report was written in December 2020. Consumer research was fielded in October 2020 and thus reflects Hispanics’ attitudes in the pandemic environment.

This Report examines Hispanics’ attitudes and behaviors toward health and wellness, with emphasis on current health and wellness areas of focus, goals for 2021, credible sources of health management, factors contributing to stress and the impact of COVID-19.

Findings in this Report can be supplemented by analysis presented in Health Management Trends – US, January 2020 and Black Consumers: Approach to Health & Wellness – US, January 2021 as well as other Reports from Mintel’s Health and Wellness and Multicultural libraries.

The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the US in January 2020. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global health pandemic; on March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency in the US.

Across the US, state-level stay-at-home orders rolled out throughout the months of March and April, remaining in place through May and in some cases June. During this time, referred to as lockdown, non-essential businesses and school districts across the nation closed or shifted to remote operations.

The pandemic impacted health and wellness services due to stay-at-home measures first, and a desire to minimize exposure to virus once the measures were lifted. Consumers took health and wellness into their own hands, focusing mainly on the things they felt they could control.

During reemergence, all 50 states have relaxed stay-at-home orders and allowed businesses to operate with varying levels of social distancing measures in place. The continued spread of COVID-19 infections has driven some states to slow down or reverse course on reopening plans. Mintel anticipates the US will remain in a state of flux through 2021, until the vaccines’ distribution becomes widely available.