Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

AI for health information literacy seed grant award

April 2nd, 2025

By Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor and information literacy instructional designer, and Dr. Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy

The South Asian region faces significant challenges in ensuring access to accurate, high-quality health information, particularly for women from underrepresented or marginalized communities. Cultural barriers and limited literacy levels exacerbated by the spread of misinformation contribute to significant challenges to women’s health information literacy, contributing to disparities in health outcomes.

The Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue recently awarded a seed grant to a research team examining how innovative AI technologies may be deployed to foster health information literacy for South Asian women. The team of researchers from five South Asian countries aims to understand better how AI technologies may be adopted to improve South Asian women’s access to health information and improve their health decision making. The research team will conduct focus groups with women in India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

This study aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Group’s regional strategic goals to promote good health and well-being and gender equality. The study findings may assist policymakers in developing health information literacy policies tailored specifically for women in this region.

The Institute looks forward to hearing the team’s recommendations on using AI technologies to support health information literacy in South Asian countries.

Institute Awardees for “AI and Health Information Literacy: A study exploring the perceived usefulness, and readiness among women in South Asia”:

• Md. Anwarul Islam, professor, Department of Information Science and Library Management, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Bhakti Gala, assistant professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Central University of Gujarat, India
• Aminath Riyaz, assistant professor, Department of Social Sciences, The Maldives National University, Maldives
• Raj Kumar Bhardwaj, librarian, University of Delhi, India

Tabassum Aslam, academic librarian, Lahore School of Economics, Punjab, Pakistan