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© 2023 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Objectives: Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to improve aspects of healthcare. However, studies have shown that healthcare AI algorithms also have the potential to perpetuate existing inequities in healthcare, performing less effectively for marginalised populations. Studies on public attitudes towards AI outside of the healthcare field have tended to show higher levels of support for AI among socioeconomically advantaged groups that are less likely to be sufferers of algorithmic harms. We aimed to examine the sociodemographic predictors of support for scenarios related to healthcare AI.

Methods: The Australian Values and Attitudes toward AI survey was conducted in March 2020 to assess Australians’ attitudes towards AI in healthcare. An innovative weighting methodology involved weighting a non-probability web-based panel against results from a shorter omnibus survey distributed to a representative sample of Australians. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationship between support for AI and a suite of sociodemographic variables in various healthcare scenarios.

Results: Where support for AI was predicted by measures of socioeconomic advantage such as education, household income and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas index, the same variables were not predictors of support for the healthcare AI scenarios presented. Variables associated with support for healthcare AI included being male, having computer science or programming experience and being aged between 18 and 34 years. Other Australian studies suggest that these groups may have a higher level of perceived familiarity with AI.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that while support for AI in general is predicted by indicators of social advantage, these same indicators do not predict support for healthcare AI.

Details

Title
Measures of socioeconomic advantage are not independent predictors of support for healthcare AI: subgroup analysis of a national Australian survey
Author
Emma Kellie Frost 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Pauline O’Shaughnessy 2 ; Steel, David 3 ; Braunack-Mayer, Annette 1 ; Yves Saint James Aquino 1 ; Carter, Stacy M 1 

 Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, School of Health and Society, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia 
 School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia 
 Centre for Sample Survey Methodology, National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia, School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia 
First page
e100714
Section
Original research
Publication year
2023
Publication date
May 2023
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
e-ISSN
26321009
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2820980595
Copyright
© 2023 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.