WANDERING BEHAVIOR IN NURSING HOME RESIDENTS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES (ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE).
Contributors: Georgia State University.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 143
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.; Gerontology.
Description: This study used an observational methodology based on video monitoring to capture the travel behaviors of 30 nursing home residents, 20 of which had been identified by nursing staff to be wanderers. The travel behaviors of these residents were evaluated by two independent raters using a reliable coding scheme developed for this study. In general, nursing home residents' travel was efficient in that routes traveled were relatively direct from one location to another. However, a number of residents also engaged in travel behaviors that were inefficient, including repetitively lapping areas (circuiting) and/or random patterns of movement (meandering). Participants were categorized into two extreme groups composed of individuals whose travel was always efficient (n = 10) and those who exhibited either meandering or circuiting at least twice a week (n = 8). Comparisons between these groups revealed that differences were limited to cognitive factors. No differences were found with regard to demography, physical demands of previous occupations, physical disabilities affecting activities of daily living, or the prescription of psychotropic medication. Although both groups appeared cognitively impaired based on their total Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS) scores, the inefficient travel group was much more profoundly impaired. Impairment of recent memory ability was the most important factor that separated the two groups. A significant but modest temporal association between exiting supervised areas and inefficient travel behaviors (circuiting or meandering) was found, which suggested exhibition of these behaviors was not without some degree of risk for elopement. Finally, the emergence of these behaviors was interpreted to be symptomatic of the latter stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: B, page: 0994.

Thesis (PH.D.)--GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 1989.

School code: 0079.