MHealth and pandemic communication in the Global South
A culture-centered study of India’s community health workers’ meanings of smartphones during the Covid-19 pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12655544 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Samiksha Pattanaik (0009-0008-3930-4729, Massey University, corresponding author), M J Dutta (0000-0002-2228-8100, Massey University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614448251352187 |
| OpenAlex | W7119189036 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
Mobile health (mHealth) initiatives gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, often relying on community health workers (CHWs) to implement digital tools. Such initiatives are, however, typically top-down and expert-driven, overlooking the voices and structural realities of marginalized CHWs in the Global South. Guided by the culture-centered approach (CCA), this study co-creates insights with India’s CHWs known as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs)—an all-female health workforce from the communities they serve—on the meaning of smartphones during the pandemic. ASHAs faced coercive pressures to procure smartphones to document COVID-19 work, despite lacking financial means or infrastructural support. This introduced what the study terms digital burden —the compounding of labor, surveillance, and moral obligation without enabling resources. While earlier literature celebrates mHealth efficiency, this study critiques such narratives by highlighting how imposed digital expectations can reproduce infrastructural violence . Despite these constraints, ASHAs drew on cultural and relational resources—such as family and community support—to navigate structural barriers. The findings offer a global critique of neoliberal health governance, cautioning that mHealth initiatives disconnected from local realities risk deepening inequality rather than addressing it
Community health · Digital health · Global health · Health equity · mHealth · Narrative · Obligation · Workforce · COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing · ICT in Developing Communities · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
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Systematic review on what works, what does not work and why of implementation of mobile health (mHealth) projects in Africa
Exploring female frontline health workers’ role and capacities in Covid-19 response in India
Freedom within a cage
Impact of the Pandemic on Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) in India
Trust and teamwork matter’
The family context of Asha and Anganwadi work in rural Rajasthan
Who bears the cost of ‘informal mhealth’? Health-workers’ mobile phone practices and associated political-moral economies of care in Ghana and Malawi
Effective Health Risk Communication About Pandemic Influenza for Vulnerable Populations
Singapore's Extreme Neoliberalism and the Covid Outbreak
Mobile phone use among patients and health workers to enhance primary healthcare
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |