Exploring the Role of Chatbots in Tackling COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Rural Northern India

DOI

Rapid and widespread vaccination played a major role in stemming the flow of Covid-19 spread. In India, the government provided free and accessible vaccination. Although the general public responded relatively positively, rural pregnant and breastfeeding women showed hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccination, leading to low vaccine uptake. In this work, we started with a formative study to understand pregnant and breastfeeding women's vaccine hesitancy. We found that the main barriers were poor knowledge about vaccines and limited agency around vaccination. To tackle their hesitancy through evidence-based vaccine education, we deployed a chatbot over WhatsApp. We studied the chatbot engagement of 800+ participants over 23 days through chat logs, surveys, and interviews. We present participants' experiences and aspirations around chatbots. We found the chatbot to work well under a constrained network to build participants' vaccine-related knowledge and intention. We further discuss the role of chatbots in healthcare beyond COVID-19 vaccination.