A strengths-based, participatory qualitative exploration of digital information access and critical health literacy among culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Australia

As the volume of online health information expands, critical health literacy is increasingly positioned as a key resource for navigating the contemporary infodemic. This qualitative study examines how multi-lingual adults from diverse migrant backgrounds in Australia access and appraise online health information. Grounded in a participatory action research approach, bilingual community co-researchers (n=11), collectively speaking eight languages other than English, were embedded across all stages of the research. Semi-structured interviews with 55 participants were conducted in participants' preferred languages. Underpinned by a critical realist epistemology and a strengths-based approach, we undertook an iterative, inductive Framework analysis. We constructed two themes (comprising 7 subthemes): (1) Navigating a jungle and (2) It's always a mix of trust and scepticism. Our findings suggest that culturally and linguistically diverse communities are required to navigate demanding information environments characterised by an overwhelming volume of online health content, much of it not tailored to diverse language needs or literacy levels and drawn from sources that are often difficult to verify. Notwithstanding these structural challenges, our strengths-based analysis identified a repertoire of practices through which participants worked to locate understandable information and distinguish credible sources from misinformation. AI tools emerged as a resource in this process, operating as an extension of participant's own cognitive and linguistic work to simplify and synthesise complex information, but positioned ambivalently within credibility practices. These findings have implications for the development of culturally responsive health literacy resources that build on the existing capacities of culturally and linguistically diverse communities.