Ethical issues of smart home-based elderly care: A scoping review

To explore current research on the ethics of smart home technologies including artificial intelligence and information technologies for elderly care by conducting a scoping review.

The development of smart home technologies for care of the older adults provides potential solutions to reduce the caregiver burden within families where they are urgently needed. Building an ethical system to support the application of these technical products should be explored.

The literature search was performed in seven electronic databases. Relevant studies from January 2015 to February 2021 were selected; screening and analysis were completed independently by two researchers.

There were a total of 15 included studies on the ethics of smart home technologies for elderly care, which focused on the following issues: privacy (information privacy and physical privacy), autonomy (independence, informed consent and user-centred control), safety guarantee, fairness and concerns about reduced human contact.

There exist a number of ethical conflicts in the application of smart home technologies for elderly care. Therefore, it is necessary to further investigate the ethical issues with regards to the decision-making process of weighing the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies.

Efforts should be made to establish a corresponding ethical framework to ensure the sustainable development of smart, home-based elderly care. Nurses may play an important role in the design and implementation of these technologies to promote ethical awareness and practice.