Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 28, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, 1050 Av. de la Médecine, G1V0A6, Québec, QC, Canada.
BMC Med Ethics. 2023 Mar 29;24(1):24. doi: 10.1186/s12910-023-00898-w.
The worldwide increase in older persons demands technological solutions to combat the shortage of caregiving and to enable aging in place. Smart home health technologies (SHHTs) are promoted and implemented as a possible solution from an economic and practical perspective. However, ethical considerations are equally important and need to be investigated.
We conducted a systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines to investigate if and how ethical questions are discussed in the field of SHHTs in caregiving for older persons.
156 peer-reviewed articles published in English, German and French were retrieved and analyzed across 10 electronic databases. Using narrative analysis, 7 ethical categories were mapped: privacy, autonomy, responsibility, human vs. artificial interactions, trust, ageism and stigma, and other concerns.
The findings of our systematic review show the (lack of) ethical consideration when it comes to the development and implementation of SHHTs for older persons. Our analysis is useful to promote careful ethical consideration when carrying out technology development, research and deployment to care for older persons.
We registered our systematic review in the PROSPERO network under CRD42021248543.
全球老年人口的增加要求技术解决方案来应对护理人员短缺问题,并实现老年人居家养老。智能家居健康技术(SHHT)从经济和实用的角度被提倡和实施为一种可能的解决方案。然而,伦理问题同样重要,需要进行调查。
我们根据 PRISMA 指南进行了系统评价,以调查在老年人护理领域的 SHHT 中是否以及如何讨论伦理问题。
在 10 个电子数据库中检索并分析了以英语、德语和法语发表的 156 篇同行评议文章。使用叙述性分析,映射了 7 个伦理类别:隐私、自主权、责任、人机交互、信任、年龄歧视和污名化以及其他问题。
我们的系统评价结果表明,在开发和实施针对老年人的 SHHT 时,存在(缺乏)伦理考虑。我们的分析有助于在开展老年人护理的技术开发、研究和部署时促进谨慎的伦理考虑。
我们在 PROSPERO 网络中对我们的系统评价进行了注册,注册号为 CRD42021248543。