Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 14, 2025
06:58
Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
7.5K
Should age matter in COVID-19 triage? A deliberative study
Margot N I Kuylen1, Scott Y Kim2,3, Alexander Ruck Keene4,5
1Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College London, London, UK margot.kuylen@kcl.ac.uk.
Journal of Medical Ethics
|March 10, 2021
Summary
Public views on healthcare triage during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal a preference for saving more lives over maximizing life-years. Participants favored principles of equality, efficiency, and vulnerability in resource allocation decisions.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Public Health Policy
- Sociology of Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic strained healthcare systems globally, raising concerns about resource scarcity and triage protocols.
- Triage guidelines, some incorporating age, potentially limited hospital access for elderly individuals, particularly those in care homes.
- Public engagement with moral intuitions is crucial for the legitimacy of triage guidelines affecting society.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore UK general public perspectives on the role of age and related factors (frailty, quality of life) in healthcare triage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To understand public moral intuitions regarding ethical principles in pandemic-related resource allocation.
- To identify core values that the public deems important for guiding triage decisions.
Main Methods:
- Conducted online deliberative workshops with 22 members of the general public.
- Employed a deliberative process to elicit informed and considered public preferences on triage principles.
- Facilitated discussions on the ethical considerations of age, frailty, and quality of life in healthcare rationing.
Main Results:
- Participants accepted the necessity of triage but rejected 'fair innings' and 'life projects' as justifications for age-based allocation.
- A preference emerged for maximizing the number of lives saved over maximizing life-years.
- A consensus emerged around three core principles: equality, efficiency, and vulnerability, suggesting a balance between utilitarianism and care for vulnerable populations.
Conclusions:
- The public's ethical framework for triage prioritizes saving more lives and values equality, efficiency, and vulnerability.
- A balanced approach, tempering efficiency with concerns for equality and vulnerability, is recommended for ethical triage deliberation.
- The identified 'triad' of ethical principles offers a structure for navigating complex triage decisions in public health crises.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:27Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
89
Age-related pharmacokinetic changes are extensively documented, but understanding age-related pharmacodynamic alterations is relatively limited. This knowledge gap can be partly attributed to the complexity of developing appropriate measures of drug responses compared to bioanalytical methods for determining drug concentrations.Most information regarding age-related differences in human pharmacodynamics originates from cross-sectional studies. However, these studies assume that observed mean...
89
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
92
Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...
92
01:00Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution
65
Drug distribution in the human body is influenced by several factors, including plasma protein concentration, body composition, blood flow, tissue-protein concentration, and tissue fluid pH. Among these, changes in plasma protein concentration and body composition due to aging significantly affect how drugs are distributed within the body. Specifically, aging is associated with a decrease in albumin levels by about 10% and an increase in α1-acid glycoprotein levels. These alterations are...
65
01:19The Effect of Aging on Tissues
3.0K
Several body functions deteriorate with age. The external signs of aging are easily identifiable. For example, the skin becomes dry, less elastic, and thins out, forming wrinkles. The skin of the face begins to appear looser due to a decrease in the levels of elastic and collagen fibers in the connective tissue. Additionally, melanin production in the hair follicle decreases with age, resulting in gray hair. Moreover, the senses of sight and hearing decline, so glasses and hearing aids may...
3.0K
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Metabolism
75
Geriatric patients show significant variation in how their bodies process medications, which can change how effective and safe treatments are. The liver is the primary organ where drug metabolism occurs, involving two main types of chemical reactions: phase I and II. Phase I metabolism is driven by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, which includes key types such as CYP3A, CYP2D6, and CYP2C9. Research indicates that while aging doesn't notably alter the levels or activity of these enzymes, it...
75
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Excretion
136
In geriatric patients, renal physiology undergoes significant changes, including diminished renal blood flow and a lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR), leading to alterations in medication clearance. Drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, lithium, and digoxin, which rely on glomerular filtration for removal from the body, particularly impact pharmacokinetics. These drugs tend to have slower clearance rates in older adults, necessitating careful dosage considerations.Evaluation of renal...
136