"Who Has the Time?": Understanding Receptivity to Health Chatbots among Underserved Women in India
Manvi S, Roshini Deva, Neha Madhiwalla, Azra Ismail
TL;DR
The paper tackles the challenge of delivering maternal and child health information to underserved women in urban India via chatbots. It combines 23 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups in Mumbai to assess receptivity toward a WhatsApp-based chatbot, collected in Hindi and analyzed with thematic methods. Findings reveal barriers such as limited device access, time constraints, digital literacy gaps, and sociocultural norms, along with trust in NGO programs as a facilitator for adoption. The authors propose design principles for health chatbots—especially asynchronous, concise, and audio-enabled interactions—tightly integrated with trusted community organizations to fit women’s daily realities and improve health outcomes.
Abstract
Access to health information and services among women continues to be a major challenge in many communities globally. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the potential of chatbots to address this information and access gap. We conducted interviews and focus group discussions with underserved women in urban India to understand their receptivity towards the use of chatbots for maternal and child health, as well as barriers to their adoption. Our findings uncover gaps in digital access and literacies, and perceived conflict with various responsibilities that women are burdened with, which shape their interactions with digital technology. Our paper offers insights into the design of chatbots for community health that can meet the lived realities of women in underserved settings.