Prioritizing Benefits: A Content Analysis of the Ethics in Dementia Technology Policies

Background: As the global prevalence of dementia rises, care costs impose a large burden on healthcare systems. Technology solutions in dementia care have the potential to ease this burden. While policies exist to guide and govern the use of dementia care technologies, little is known about how ethical considerations are incorporated into these documents.

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine ethics-related content in dementia care technology policies.

Methods: We used a two-step data mining approach to collect a sample of dementia technology policies. Policy documents were analyzed using emergent content analysis. Following the coding of the sample, thematic categories were organized using the principles of biomedical ethics as a framework.

Results: A total of 23 policy documents from four Alzheimer associations in four countries were included in our analysis. General ethics considerations and themes related to beneficence were mentioned in 96% of the documents. Thematic categories related to justice were present in 74% of the sample, themes related to non-maleficence appeared in 52% of documents, and themes related to autonomy appeared in 43% of the sample.

Conclusion: While ethical considerations are present in existing policies for dementia care technology, these considerations revolve primarily around the benefit of the technologies. Further efforts are needed to provide formal guidance that incorporates both benefits and potential harms.