Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 22, 2025
Date Accepted: Mar 30, 2026
The digital exposome: a lifecourse framework for health in the digital age
ABSTRACT
Digital technologies are transforming human behavior, healthcare, and population health, yet their cumulative impact across the lifespan remains underexplored. The digital exposome captures the full spectrum of exposures arising from interactions or proximities with digital technologies and their combined influence on health across the lifespan. These exposures can both improve health, through monitoring, personalized interventions, and health-promoting tools, and amplify risks, including mental health challenges, cognitive disruption, and inequities among vulnerable populations. Despite their ubiquity, digital-related exposures are rarely integrated into clinical medicine, or public and global health policies. Systematic measurement, longitudinal studies, and harmonized metrics are essential to characterize risks and benefits. Emerging tools, such as digital (bio)markers and phenotypes, can link real-world technology use to biological outcomes, supporting precision medicine and population health strategies. Recognizing the digital exposome as a modifiable determinant offers a framework for evidence-based guidance, policy interventions, and equitable, lifelong health in increasingly digital societies.
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