Schülke Astrid M, Plischke Herbert, Kohls Niko B
Generation Research Program, Human Science Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany.
Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2010 Jun 7;5:8. doi: 10.1186/1747-5341-5-8.
Due to the socio-demographic change in most developed western countries, elderly populations have been continuously increasing. Therefore, preventive and assistive systems that allow elderly people to independently live in their own homes as long as possible will become an economical if not ethical necessity. These respective technologies are being developed under the term "Ambient Assistive Technologies" (AAT). The EU-funded AAT-project Ambient Lighting Assistance for an Ageing Population (ALADIN) has established the long-term goal to create an adaptive system capable of improving the residential lighting conditions of single living elderly persons also aiming at supporting the preservation of their independence.Results of an earlier survey revealed that the elderly perceived their current lighting situation as satisfactory, whereas interviewers assessed in-house lighting as too dark and risk-laden. The overall results of ALADIN showed a significant increase in well-being from the baseline final testing with the new adaptive lighting system.Positive results for wellbeing and life quality suggest that the outcome effects may be attributed to the introduction of technology as well as to social contacts arising from participating in the study. The technological guidance of the study supervisors, in particular, may have produced a strong social reactivity effect that was first observed in the famous Hawthorne experiments in the 1930s. As older adults seem to benefit both from meaningful social contacts as well as assistive technologies, the question arises how assistive technology can be socially embedded to be able to maximize positive health effects. Therefore ethical guidelines for development and use of new assistive technologies for handicapped/older persons have to be developed and should be discussed with regard to their applicability in the context of AAT.
由于大多数西方发达国家的社会人口结构变化，老年人口持续增加。因此，能够让老年人尽可能长时间独立居家生活的预防和辅助系统将成为一种经济上乃至道德上的必然需求。这些相关技术正在“环境辅助技术”（AAT）这一术语下进行开发。欧盟资助的AAT项目“老年人口环境照明辅助”（ALADIN）设定了长期目标，即创建一个自适应系统，该系统能够改善独居老年人的居住照明条件，同时旨在支持维护他们的独立性。早期一项调查的结果显示，老年人认为他们当前的照明状况令人满意，而采访者评估室内照明过于昏暗且充满风险。ALADIN的总体结果表明，使用新的自适应照明系统从基线到最终测试，幸福感有显著提升。幸福感和生活质量的积极结果表明，这些结果效应可能归因于技术的引入以及参与研究所产生的社会接触。特别是研究主管的技术指导，可能产生了强烈的社会反应效应，这种效应最早在20世纪30年代著名的霍桑实验中被观察到。由于老年人似乎从有意义的社会接触和辅助技术中都能受益，问题就出现了，即如何将辅助技术融入社会，以便能够最大限度地发挥积极的健康影响。因此，必须制定针对残疾/老年人的新辅助技术开发和使用的伦理准则，并应就其在AAT背景下的适用性进行讨论。
