{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T17:47:42Z","timestamp":1782841662534,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"JMIR Publications Inc.","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JMIR Infodemiology"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Nearly 1 in 4 young adults has a chronic condition, yet many feel well despite their diagnosis. Asymptomatic conditions such as prediabetes and hypertension create a unique vulnerability to digital health misinformation, particularly on platforms where inaccurate content is prevalent. Conventional clinical responses, which often just warn patients about online misinformation, fail to address the underlying drivers of this behavior. This viewpoint proposes a novel disease characteristic\u2013based vulnerability framework to understand this challenge, grounded in established behavioral science theories such as the capability, opportunity, and motivation\u2013behavior model; temporal discounting; and the concept of information voids in infodemiology. We identify a critical \u201cinformation void\u201d for asymptomatic conditions managed primarily through lifestyle modification. This void, created by the absence of symptomatic feedback combined with delayed clinical biomarker feedback, compels patients to seek information online. Instead of viewing this information seeking as a problematic deviation, we reframe it as a \u201cdigital phenotype\u201d indicating a patient\u2019s readiness for behavior change. Through case studies illustrating how this framework applies to specific conditions (prediabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and untreated hypertension), we demonstrate its practical utility for clinicians, health systems, and policymakers. Evidence supports a multipronged approach: integrating digital health literacy into clinical encounters, providing curated evidence-based resources, and pursuing strategic institutional engagement in digital spaces. While acknowledging the framework\u2019s deliberate simplification and the need for culturally sensitive adaptation across diverse health care settings, this viewpoint offers a generalizable strategy for engaging with patients\u2019 information needs, helping transform a public health challenge into an opportunity for empowerment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2196\/86489","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T17:44:11Z","timestamp":1775583851000},"page":"e86489-e86489","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Information Void in Asymptomatic Chronic Disease: A Digital Health Framework for Understanding Social Media Health Information Seeking in Young Adults"],"prefix":"10.2196","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-9543-9688","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victoria Sze Min","family":"Ekstrom","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1010","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"R1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jamapediatrics.2019.4498","article-title":"Prevalence of prediabetes among adolescents and young adults in the United States, 2005-2016","volume":"174","author":"Andes","journal-title":"JAMA Pediatr"},{"issue":"4","key":"R2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.20517\/mtod.2022.24","article-title":"The growing prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), determined by fatty liver index, amongst young adults in the United States. 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