Consumers Seeking New Solutions To Treat Rising Stress And Anxiety Levels
Executive Summary
Research from Euromonitor International reveals how consumers globally are struggling with stress and anxiety and are turning away from conventional drugs in favor of lifestyle changes. With consumers now ranking mental well-being as their number-one health priority, OTC players must adopt a more holistic approach to healthcare or risk being left behind.
Mental well-being is now the top concern for consumers globally when it comes to feeling healthy, according to market research provider Euromonitor International.
Healthy living has often focused on physical ailments, the market researcher notes, however over the past couple of years there has been a dramatic shift in attention to maintaining good mental health.
Consumers are looking at health with a more holistic view and want to make lifestyle changes that can support their mental well-being and prevent illnesses and ailments in the future, rather than just take a pill when feeling unwell, Euromonitor explains. This has resulted in a rise in the number of consumers globally taking yoga, participating in meditation as well as placing more importance on sleep.
Brands Must Respond To Changing Consumers
“As consumers are shifting their focus towards a more holistic approach to healthcare, brands and companies need to ensure that they are looking at their products and services with the same view,” argues Euromonitor’s consumer insights research consultant Amrutha Shridhar. “Therefore, it is important that they look beyond their immediate competitors and product categories as disruption within health and nutrition industries continue to evolve.”
The growing interest in mental well-being is an emerging trend identified by Euromonitor’s Health and Nutrition Survey, which questioned 20,000 respondents across twenty core markets around the world about their everyday and long-term health behaviors and attitudes.
The results – published in Euromonitor’s ‘Top Consumer Trends Impacting Health and Nutrition’ report – indicate that consumers behaviors when it comes to managing their health and well-being are consistently changing year-on-year. “As new trends emerge and further information about various ailments and illnesses is shared via more channels than ever before, it is important for companies and brands to understand consumer perceptions and habits when it comes to their health,” Shridhar explains.
Reflecting the growing importance placed on mental well-being, one area where consumers are adopting a more holistic approach to self-care is the management of stress and anxiety, Euromonitor’s report reveals.
Stressed Out Consumers Seek New Treatments
“Consumers who previously relied on OTC medicines to treat stress and anxiety may now be shifting their focus to incorporate dietary changes and a more active lifestyle to treat and prevent this issue,” Shridhar notes. “Constantly changing health trends and large amounts of easily available information on health and nutrition is blurring the lines of what types of products consumers are using to maintain their health.”
The report reveals that stress and anxiety remains an issue globally for a large proportion of the population, presenting savvy consumer health players with an opportunity to offer new solutions that take a holistic approach to the problem.
Japan leads the way with the highest number of consumers reporting extreme levels of stress and anxiety. Around 25% of Japanese respondents confessed to typically having “high or extreme” stress levels, just ahead of 20% in Poland and Italy.
When it comes to coping with that anxiety, those in Poland and Italy struggle most, the report shows, with more than 80% of survey respondents in both countries admitting that stress and anxiety had a “moderate to severe” impact on their lives. Japan, Brazil, Australia, Turkey and the US are not far behind, with over 70% of consumers making the same admission.
Those in Australia and Turkey feel even low levels of stress and anxiety impact their lives on a day-to-day basis, according to Euromonitor, and around two-fifths of respondents in both markets admitted to feeling anxious at the time the survey was taken.
Both internal external factors influence stress levels, says Shridhar. “The rise of social media, fast and on-the-go lifestyles alongside fluctuating political and environmental landscapes have greatly influenced and increased the amount of stress and anxiety consumers feel daily.”
While mental well-being has grown in importance for consumers, Euromonitor’s report shows that they continue to value good physical health and are prepared to make lifestyle changes in an effort to prevent illness in the future.
The trend of prevention rather than treatment is particularly evident in the growth of the global vitamins and dietary supplements market in recent years, Euromonitor data shows. After a small stumble in 2015, the market has grown year-on-year for the past three years. In 2018, it surpassed the $100bn mark for the first time, with sales at retail selling prices advancing by 7.5% to $106.4bn.
Euromonitor’s report reveals that the same types of supplements are popular all over the world. In North America and Europe, multivitamins are the most consumed supplement, while they are the second most popular option in the Middle East and Africa and third choice in both Asia Pacific and Latin America.
Vitamin C supplements are among the most consumed in four of the regions, the report reveals, while calcium and vitamin D are popular in three.
“With busy lifestyles alongside pressures from work and family, not all consumers are able to dedicate the time to live the healthy and balanced lifestyles they seek,” Shridhar explains. “Instead, they look for a compromise, seeking convenient methods of getting nutrients and vitamins through supplements to focus on health and wellness rather than treatment.”