Artificial Intelligence in Rural Healthcare: Bridging Access, Mitigating Socio-Cultural Barriers, and Addressing Health Inequalities (2020-25)

Abstract

Rural populations in countries with middle income still face big and long-lasting differences in getting healthcare. They have trouble with access to healthcare the quality of care they get and their health results. From 2020 to 2025 there was an increase in using artificial intelligence in healthcare. This happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the world changing to use digital tools. However people do not understand enough about the fairness issues when using AI in places that have limited resources in countries like Pakistan. This review wants to look at the role of AI in healthcare for rural areas between 2020 and 2025. It will find out what social and cultural factors affect how AI is used and what causes the gap in access. It will also suggest a way to use AI fairly with Pakistan as the example. A review of the literature was done using the PRISMA-ScR method. It looked at all the articles published from January 2020 to December 2025. A lot of searching was done in five databases and after removing duplicates 412 articles were found. Two people checked these articles. Picked 80 that fit the rules. They also added 12 policy documents and 8 national surveys. AI projects had an effect in many parts of rural healthcare. AI used for diagnosis made diagnosis more accurate by 34% and cut the time it took to diagnose by 52% in pilot programs. Chatbots that helped with mothers health increased the number of women going to check-ups by 38% in some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The use of AI was not the same for everyone. More women in areas used it less than men and people in places with low digital skills used it less. The main problems were gender roles not trusting the machines, language problems, bias in the AI systems against people from South Asia and lack of basic things like electricity and internet. The research from 2020 to 2025 shows that AI has the power to help close the health gap, in areas. This only happens if the AI is used in ways that focus on fairness and care about the culture. A plan called "Culturally Anchored AI" is suggested. It focuses on making policies work together letting the community help create the AI investing in the tools needed training workers and checking on how it works over time. If people do not pay attention to the culture and social factors AI could be a tool that leaves people out of helping them.

Keywords: Here are the key terms: Artificial Intelligence; Rural Health; Health Equity; Digital Divide; Socio-Cultural Determinants; Pakistan; Low- and Middle-Income Countries; Telemedicine; Machine Learning; Health Policy.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23038054