COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL DISCRIMINANTS OF WANDERING BEHAVIOR AMONG COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED NURSING HOME RESIDENTS.
Contributors: Case Western Reserve University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 161
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: The purpose of this descriptive survey was to identify dimensions of cognitive impairment and aspects of the social environment that best discriminate wandering from non-wandering cognitively-impaired nursing home residents. With a stratified, random cluster approach, eight nursing homes produced an overall sample of 747 subjects, who were screened to segment 198 cognitively-impaired ambulatory subjects and yield 93 subjects for subsequent discriminant function analyses. Cognitive impairment was measured by the Everyday Indicators of Cognitive Impairment Scale (EICI), developed for this study and validated by factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha for EICI subscales ranged from.50 to.91. Social environment was measured using a modified version of the Sheltered Care Environment Scale (SCES). Cronbach's alpha for subscales of the SCES ranged from.43 to.64. Factor analysis of the modified SCES did not confirm its theoretical structure. Wandering was measured using LSI-monitors. Wanderers were those whose 12-hour LSI-readings were in the upmost third of those monitored; non-wanderers were those with readings in the lowest third. T-tests revealed no significant differences between wanderers and non-wanderers on any dimensions of cognitive impairment or aspects of the social environment, though results tended toward significance for spatial and language skills, particularly reading comprehension. Linear discriminant function analyses further supported the importance of spatial and language skills in differentiating wanderers from non-wanderers and suggested that abstract thinking, judgment, and perceptions regarding the affective aspect of the social environment were also important to the discrimination. Linear classification function analyses improved only slightly over chance (53.2% and 61.3%) the prediction of subjects as wanderers or non-wanderers on the basis of cognitive and social environment variables.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: B, page: 5224.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY (HEALTH SCIENCES), 1988.

School code: 0499.