Exploring the role of regulation and the care of older people with depression living in long-term care? A systematic scoping review protocol

Reference architectures for ambient assisted living: a scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION

For the first time in human history, the number of older people will be higher than the number of children. The prevalence of chronic diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mental disorders in older adults is high. Given that, it is essential to make usage of related technology to provide improved health conditions and reduce the costs for promoting ageing in place, and that is precisely the aim of Ambient Assisted Living technology. Considering that these systems provide significant benefit to a vast number of stakeholders, can be applied to the functional diversity of application domains and have high economic and social impacts, it is essential to create reusable and interoperable platforms and standards that are able to deal with the heterogeneity of applications and domains. In this sense, reference architectures have been proposed and evaluated. A comprehensive scoping review concerning the reference architectures must clarify specific aspects, such as what the main domains are and how the solutions effectively deal with them.

METHODS

This scoping review will follow the methodology framework defined in 'Scoping studies: advancing the methodology'. In this methodological framework, six stages are proposed for scoping review studies: identifying the research question; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; collating, summarising and reporting the results; and consultation. The research questions aim to investigate what are the motivations, stakeholders, benefits, domains, approaches, architectural components and governance aspects of the proposed reference architectures and models. The team will focus on the Scopus Document Search, PubMed (MEDLINE), IEEE Xplore Digital Library, ACM Digital Library and Science Direct electronic research databases. The search query is a combination of terms related to Ambient Assisted Living AND Reference Architecture.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This is a scoping review study and there is no requirement for ethical approval, as primary data will not be collected. The results from this scoping review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and reported at scientific meetings. We intend to share the results with the International Standards and Conformity Assessment - SyC AAL from Canada to use the review as a basis for establishing an assessment model of reference architectures.

The role of regulation in the care of older people with depression living in long-term care: a systematic scoping review

Background

This aim of this study was to explore the role of regulation on the quality of care of older people living with depression in LTC, which in this paper is a domestic environment providing 24-h care for people with complex health needs and increased vulnerability.

Methods

We conducted a systematic scoping review. A peer reviewed search strategy was developed in consultation with a specialist librarian. Several databases were searched to identify relevant studies including: Embase (using the OVID platform); MEDLINE (using the OVID platform); Psych info (using the OVID platform); Ageline (using the EBSCO platform); and CINHAL (using the EBSCO platform). Articles were screened by three reviewers with conflicts resolved in consultation with authors. Data charting was completed by one reviewer, with a quality check performed by a second reviewer. Key themes were then derived from the included studies.

Results

The search yielded 778 unique articles, of which 20 were included. Articles were grouped by themes: regulatory requirements, funding issues, and organizational issues.

Conclusion

The highly regulated environment of LTC poses significant challenges which can influence the quality of care of residents with depression. Despite existing evidence around prevalence and improved treatment regimens, regulation appears to have failed to capture the best practice and contemporary knowledge available. This scoping review has identified a need for further empirical research to explore these issues.