A Fast Growing Market Nobody Wants to Talk About
On National Caregivers Day, it is time to ask why wellness media treats caregivers and aging as trends not worth covering. The answer reveals how the industry defines relevance.
National Caregivers Day lands on February 20, a day meant to recognize the 63 million Americans providing unpaid care worth an estimated $600 billion annually. By 2034, for the first time in US history, people over 65 will outnumber those under 18. Nearly one in four Americans is now a family caregiver, a 45 percent increase since 2015. The economic, social, and healthcare implications are staggering. The media coverage is not.
Wellness media, health publications, and lifestyle brands have collectively decided that caregiving, aging, and the demographic shifts redefining American households are topics that belong in specialty publications for older audiences, not in the aspirational wellness content that drives engagement. The absence is deliberate. The cost is measurable. And on a day designed to honor caregivers, the silence from the platforms that claim to cover health and wellness is the loudest statement of all.
Journalistic Integrity Means Covering What Matters, Not Just What Trends
A study analyzing a 1.1 billion-word media database found that negative descriptions of older adults outnumber positive ones by six to one. Women over 50 represent 20 percent of the US population, but received just 8 percent of television screen time in 2021. When older adults do appear in wellness content, they appear in one of two contexts: as the beneficiaries of anti-aging products or as cautionary tales of decline. The aspirational wellness aesthetic, the active body, the glowing skin, the morning routine, code consistently young. Caregiving, when it appears at all, is framed as a burden rather than as the structural reality shaping millions of households.
This is a professional failure masquerading as an editorial strategy. Journalistic integrity requires covering stories that matter to the public, especially when those stories challenge the comfortable assumptions of advertisers and algorithm-driven engagement metrics. A media industry that defines relevance as what performs well on Instagram has abandoned the most foundational responsibility of journalism: to inform the public about the forces shaping their lives, whether or not those forces photograph well.
“Journalistic integrity requires covering stories that matter to the public, especially when those stories challenge the comfortable assumptions of advertisers and engagement metrics.”
Caregiving is not a niche topic. Nearly half of all working caregivers experience impacts on their employment. Nearly half report at least one negative financial impact, including taking on debt, not saving money, and depleting short-term savings. One in five caregivers rates their own health as fair or poor, a direct consequence of prioritizing the care recipient over their own well-being. These are not edge cases. These are the lived realities of 63 million Americans, and the number is growing faster than any demographic the wellness industry currently considers worth covering.
Older Adults Are the Fastest-Growing Market. The Industry Has Decided Not to Notice.
Americans aged 65 and older account for 22 percent of all consumer spending. The US population over 65 is projected to grow from 56 million in 2020 to 82 million by 2050. Older adults are the fastest-growing demographic on social media. They demonstrate stronger brand loyalty than younger audiences. They have disposable income, purchasing power, and specific health and wellness needs that are systematically underserved by an industry obsessed with the 18 to 35 demographic.
The commercial case for covering aging, caregiving, and older adult health is overwhelming. AARP found that 86 percent of women aged 50 and older feel underrepresented in advertising, and 91 percent want more realistic imagery of women their age in beauty and personal care campaigns. The market is begging to be served. The industry has chosen to ignore it in favor of the self-fulfilling logic that drives most wellness media: brands target younger demographics because that is where the trend content lives, trend content features younger demographics because that is what brands commission, and the cycle excludes the largest, wealthiest, and most loyal consumer segment from the conversation entirely.
“The market is begging to be served. The industry has chosen to ignore it in favor of self-fulfilling logic that excludes the largest, wealthiest, and most loyal consumer segment.”
This is where PR strategy diverges most sharply from ethical journalism. A public relations professional operating with genuine strategic discipline recognizes that demographic trends, not Instagram trends, determine long term brand viability. The wellness industry that builds its content strategy around what performs well today while ignoring the demographic reality reshaping the market over the next two decades is not being strategic. It is being short-sighted to the point of malpractice.
The Silence Is a Choice
Ageism costs the US healthcare system an estimated $63 billion annually. Intersectionality compounds this: Black older adults experience lower health outcomes and higher rates of concern about mistreatment. Among adults over 50, those struggling financially experience ageism at 63 percent, compared to 46 percent overall. The demographics most underserved by healthcare are also most absent from wellness media.
The wellness industry will argue that editorial decisions reflect audience preferences and engagement data. This mistakes the output of a biased system for evidence of organic demand. The data reflects the choices that built the system, not the preferences of an audience never given the option.
National Caregivers Day exists because 63 million Americans are providing care that keeps the healthcare system from collapsing under its own weight. These caregivers are overwhelmingly women. They are balancing full-time work with unpaid labor that would cost $600 billion if compensated at market rates. They are experiencing financial strain, employment disruption, and declining personal health as a direct consequence of caregiving responsibilities. And the wellness media that claims to serve women, health, and holistic wellbeing has chosen to treat their existence as too niche, too unsexy, or too inconvenient to cover.
“The wellness media that claims to serve women, health, and holistic wellbeing has chosen to treat caregivers as too niche, too unsexy, or too inconvenient to cover.”
Catalyst Brand Strategy works with health and wellness organizations that recognize the strategic and ethical imperative of serving the full demographic spectrum, not just the Instagram-friendly slice. The firm’s communications approach is built on a foundational premise: what cannot be measured cannot be held accountable, and what is deliberately excluded from coverage cannot claim to serve public health. For organizations serious about building long-term brand equity in a market being reshaped by demographic forces larger than any trend cycle, coverage decisions are strategic decisions, and silence is a choice.
Sources: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP Caregiving in the US 2025 Report, Caregiver Action Network statistics, 1.1 billion word media database analysis, Geena Davis Institute Survey (2021), AARP Ageism in Advertising Research (2024), Administration for Community Living National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. National Caregivers Day is observed annually on the third Friday in February.
