Parental Attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence-Driven Precision Medicine Technologies in Pediatric Healthcare

Precision medicine relies upon artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies that raise ethical and practical concerns. In this study, we developed and validated a measure of parental openness and concerns with AI-driven technologies in their child’s healthcare. In this cross-sectional survey, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bryan A. Sisk, Alison L. Antes, Sara Burrous, James M. DuBois
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
Series:Children
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/7/9/145
Description
Summary:Precision medicine relies upon artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies that raise ethical and practical concerns. In this study, we developed and validated a measure of parental openness and concerns with AI-driven technologies in their child’s healthcare. In this cross-sectional survey, we enrolled parents of children <18 years in 2 rounds for exploratory (<i>n</i> = 418) and confirmatory (<i>n</i> = 386) factor analysis. We developed a 12-item measure of parental openness to AI-driven technologies, and a 33-item measure identifying concerns that parents found important when considering these technologies. We also evaluated associations between openness and attitudes, beliefs, personality traits, and demographics. Parents (<i>N</i> = 804) reported mean openness to AI-driven technologies of M = 3.4/5, SD = 0.9. We identified seven concerns that parents considered important when evaluating these technologies: quality/accuracy, privacy, shared decision making, convenience, cost, human element of care, and social justice. In multivariable linear regression, parental openness was positively associated with quality (beta = 0.23), convenience (beta = 0.16), and cost (beta = 0.11), as well as faith in technology (beta = 0.23) and trust in health information systems (beta = 0.12). Parental openness was negatively associated with the perceived importance of shared decision making (beta = −0.16) and being female (beta = −0.12). Developers might support parental openness by addressing these concerns during the development and implementation of novel AI-driven technologies.
ISSN:2227-9067