Wearable Technologies for Healthy Ageing: Prospects, Challenges, and Ethical Considerations

Area of Science:

• Digital Health and Gerontology
• Human-Computer Interaction in Healthcare

Background:

• Digital technologies are transforming healthcare, with a particular need to support aging populations.
• Previous research explored digital health for older adults, but few studies focus specifically on wearables for healthy aging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the use of wearable devices for promoting healthy aging.
• To provide ethical insights into leveraging wearable technology for older adults.
• To analyze opportunities and challenges in this domain.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of opportunities presented by wearable devices for healthy aging.
• Focus on five domains of intrinsic capacity: locomotion, sensory functions, psychological aspects, cognition, and vitality.
• Identification and discussion of current limitations and ethical challenges.

Main Results:

• Wearable devices present considerable opportunities for enhancing healthy aging across intrinsic capacity domains.
• Key challenges include issues of access, inclusion, privacy, surveillance, autonomy, and regulation.

Conclusions:

• Wearable technology offers a promising avenue for supporting healthy aging.
• Addressing ethical challenges is crucial for responsible and equitable deployment.
• Recommendations are provided to navigate current debates in digital health ethics.