Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Aug 13, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 14, 2026 - Oct 9, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
How rural Gypsy/Traveller women approach digital healthcare services as caregivers and care receivers: an interview study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Gypsy/Travellers are an ethnic group in the UK with poor health outcomes and multi-level challenges in services access, including potential digital barriers. In addition to these access and technical factors, gender also plays an important role in community healthcare in Gypsy/Traveller culture. This study explores the unique experiences of Gypsy/Traveller women in rural Scotland regarding how they engage with digital health services.
Objective:
To understand how Gypsy/Traveller women’s gendered roles and the use of technology shape each other in healthcare, and the implications for future services to be inclusive and supportive for this population.
Methods:
We recruited Gypsy/Travellers from a community organisation; participants were interviewed in small groups during community events. We drew on the concepts of intersectionality and ‘doing gender’ to explore Gypsy/Traveller women’s roles in healthcare and how technology impacted these roles.
Results:
Twenty-one participants (aged 16-71 years) were interviewed. Gypsy/Traveller women often manage healthcare for their family members while being healthcare recipients themselves; they have to navigate a hostile external environment due to systematic exclusion. Women are the main users of digital healthcare services, reflecting both their gendered roles and personal needs. Technology can help women juggle domestic responsibilities and provide space for them to discuss personal health, while at the same time, it may hinder relationship building with healthcare professionals and replace therapeutic in-person interactions.
Conclusions:
Out findings highlight how technology use in health is gendered when women are both caregivers and healthcare recipients. Technology holds the potential to support women but may also reinforce gender dynamics. To move towards a more equitable system, ethnic minority women should be included in service design; digital healthcare services meet the needs of women. The healthcare system needs to build up capacity to tackle discrimination and systematic exclusion of marginalised populations.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.