Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026
08:42
A Familiarization Protocol Facilitates the Participation of Children with ASD in Electrophysiological Research
Published on: July 31, 2017
Designing Consent Processes for Research With Older Adults Who May Lack Decisional Capacity: A Guide for
Emily A Largent1, Stephanie R Morain2, Jason Karlawish3
1Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
|May 7, 2026
Summary
Researchers can ensure ethical research with older adults by using a nine-step framework for informed consent processes, addressing cognitive impairment challenges and regulatory obligations.
Area of Science:
- Bioethics
- Clinical Research Ethics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Informed consent is crucial for ethical research.
- Older adults may face challenges in providing informed consent due to cognitive impairment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a nine-step framework to guide researchers in designing ethical consent processes for older adults.
- To address challenges in obtaining informed consent from participants with diminished decisional capacity.
Main Methods:
- The framework involves nine steps: identifying participants, assessing capacity, determining justification for enrollment, assessing need for consent, preparing accessible information, assessing decisional capacity, identifying surrogates, involving participants lacking capacity, and considering changes over time.
Main Results:
- The framework provides a structured approach to navigate complex consent scenarios.
- It helps researchers anticipate and manage ethical and regulatory challenges.
Conclusions:
- This framework supports researchers in fulfilling ethical and regulatory obligations when enrolling older adults, particularly those with cognitive impairments.
- It can be applied to grant applications, Institutional Review Board protocols, and research practice.
Related Concept Videos
01:56Ethics in Research
Today, scientists agree that good research is ethical in nature and is guided by a basic respect for human dignity and safety. However, this has not always been the case. Modern researchers must demonstrate that the research they perform is ethically sound.
01:30Ethical Dilemmas II
Resolving an ethical dilemma in healthcare involves a systematic approach that considers every aspect of the issue, respecting both the patient's needs and values and the healthcare professional's ethical obligations. Here are potential steps to resolve an ethical dilemma:
01:27Nurses' Legal Responsibilities I
In healthcare, informed consent is a crucial process that involves thoroughly communicating medical treatment options to patients, including benefits, risks, potential side effects, and alternatives. This process enables patients to make well-informed decisions about their care, ensuring they understand the implications of their choices before consenting to or refusing treatment.
The legal responsibilities of a nurse regarding informed consent include the following:
The legal responsibilities of a nurse regarding informed consent include the following:
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
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...
01:27Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
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...
02:07Blind Procedures
Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...