Combating Infant Mortality in Rural India: Evidence From a Field Study of eHealth Kiosk Implementations

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dc.contributor.authorVenkatesh, Viswanathen
dc.contributor.authorRai, Arunen
dc.contributor.authorSykes, Tracy Annen
dc.contributor.authorAljafari, Rubaen
dc.coverage.countryIndiaen
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-25T16:32:53Zen
dc.date.available2022-05-25T16:32:53Zen
dc.date.issued2016-06-01en
dc.date.updated2022-05-09T04:26:07Zen
dc.description.abstractThe United Nations' Millennium Development Goals listed high infant mortality rates as a major problem in developing countries, especially in rural areas. Given the powerful information dissemination capabilities, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been suggested as interventions to build infant care awareness and to modify healthcare behaviors. We examine how the use of one ICT intervention-specifically, eHealth kiosks disseminating authenticated and accessible medical information-can alleviate the problem of high infant mortality in rural India. We investigate how mothers' social networks affect their use of eHealth kiosks, seeking professional medical care for their infants and, ultimately, infant mortality. Drawing on the social epidemiology and social networks literatures, we focus on advice and hindrance from both strong and weak ties as the conduit of social influence on mothers' health-related behaviors for the care of their infants. Over a period of 7 years, we studied 4,620 infants across 10 villages where the eHealth kiosks were implemented along with support resources for proxy use. The results revealed that (1) eHealth kiosk use promotes seeking professional medical care and reduces infant mortality, (2) mothers are especially vulnerable to hindrance from both strong and weak ties as they choose to maintain the status quo of traditional infant healthcare practices (e.g., reliance on untrained personnel, superstitions, fatalism) in villages, and (3) advice from both strong and weak ties offers the potential to break down misplaced beliefs about infant healthcare practices and to develop literacy on seeking professional medical care. In contrast, in a comparative group of 10 neighboring villages, the reduction in infant mortality was not as pronounced and the effect of professional medical care in reducing infant mortality was lower. Our findings suggest that an ICT intervention can effectively address one of society's most important problems (i.e., infant mortality) even in parts of the world with limited resources and deep suspicion of technology and change. Overall, we believe such an ICT intervention will complement other investments being made, including the facilitation of use (proxy use) and provision of professional medical facilities to reduce infant mortality.en
dc.description.versionAccepted versionen
dc.format.extentPages 353-380en
dc.format.extent28 page(s)en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2016/40.2.04en
dc.identifier.eissn2162-9730en
dc.identifier.issn0276-7783en
dc.identifier.issue2en
dc.identifier.orcidVenkatesh, Viswanath [0000-0001-8473-376X]en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/110326en
dc.identifier.volume40en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSociety for Information Managementen
dc.relation.urihttp://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000376783300004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=930d57c9ac61a043676db62af60056c1en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectSocial networksen
dc.subjectstrong tiesen
dc.subjectweak tiesen
dc.subjectinfant mortalityen
dc.subjectMillennium Development Goalsen
dc.subjectE-GOVERNMENTen
dc.subjectLONGITUDINAL-FIELDen
dc.subjectPERSPECTIVEen
dc.subjectCAREen
dc.subjectCOMMUNICATIONen
dc.subjectPERFORMANCEen
dc.subjectBUSINESSen
dc.subjectOUTCOMESen
dc.subjectSUPPORTen
dc.titleCombating Infant Mortality in Rural India: Evidence From a Field Study of eHealth Kiosk Implementationsen
dc.title.serialMIS Quarterlyen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.otherArticleen
dc.type.otherJournalen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Techen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Pamplin College of Businessen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Pamplin College of Business/Business Information Technologyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/All T&R Facultyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Pamplin College of Business/PCOB T&R Facultyen

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