JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia are commonly observed among older adults with the disorder, and they have multiple negative consequences. Artificial-intelligence-based technologies have the potential to help healthcare professionals, including nurses, detect behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia earlier. The recent surge of interest in this topic underscores the need to comprehensively examine the existing evidence.

Objective:

This scoping review aimed to identify and summarise the types and uses of artificial-intelligence-based technologies currently used for the early detection of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia among older adults. We also examined which healthcare professionals were involved, nursing involvement and experience, the care settings in which these technologies are employed, and the characteristics of the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia that were assessed.

Methods:

Our scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute manual for scoping reviews. The Medline ALL Ovid, Embase.com, APA PsycINFO Ovid, CINAHL EBSCO, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Wiley, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Wiley, and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I bibliographic databases were all searched in March 2025. Additional searches were done using citation tracking strategies. The results are reported in accordance with the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) standards and are presented using a narrative approach.

Results:

After screening 3459 articles for eligibility, the review includes twelve studies. The studies retained were conducted between 2012 and 2025 in five countries and encompassed a range of care settings. The artificial-intelligence-based technologies used were predominantly based on classic machine learning approaches and used information from environmental sensors, wearable devices and data recording systems. These studies primarily assessed behavioural and physiological parameters and focussed specifically on symptoms such as agitation and aggression. None of the studies retained explored nurses’ roles or their specific skills in using these technologies.

Conclusions:

The use of artificial-intelligence-based technologies for managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia represents an emerging field of research offering novel opportunities to enhance their detection in various healthcare contexts. We recommended that nurses be actively engaged in developing and assessing these technologies. Future research should prioritise investigations into how effective artificial-intelligence-based technologies are across diverse populations, whether they can have a long-term impact on managing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, and whether they can improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers.