July 21, 2025
Overview:
Social listening, such as monitoring conversations and trends on platforms including social media, has become a crucial strategy in public health communication, especially for combating misinformation and enhancing public health messaging. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, limited resources like internet access exclude large parts of the population from benefiting from this approach. Women face additional obstacles, such as restricted access to mobile phones and lower educational levels, due to social and economic inequalities. These challenges diminish their ability to engage with and gain from health information shared online. This One Health Trust collaborative article examines how gender and socio-economic status affect the use of social media as a health information source in both urban and rural areas of India.
The Question:
How do gender and socio-economic status influence access to and use of social media for health information in urban and rural India?
The Findings:
Drawing on two case studies—one in urban India involving 1,565 men and 1,133 women working in call centers across five cities, and another in rural Karnataka with 723 men and 748 women surveyed—researchers found that women were significantly less likely than men to use social media for news and health information. The findings also reveal that economic status and caste significantly influence how individuals depend on social media for health-related updates.
These disparities highlight the importance of using both online and offline methods in public health communication to ensure inclusivity and reduce the digital divide.
Read the article in Asian Bioethics Review here.
