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Resident characteristics associated with wandering in nursing homes
D K Kiely1, J N Morris, D L Algase
1Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged, HRCA Research and Training Institute, Boston, MA 02131, USA. kiely@mail.hrca.harvard.edu
Objectives:
This retrospective cohort study examined the association between resident characteristics and the development of wandering behavior.
Methods:
Subjects included a total of 8982 residents from the states of Mississippi, Texas, and Vermont who had baseline and 3-month follow-up Minimum Data Set assessments between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1997.
Results:
Residents who had a short-term memory problem (Odds Ratio (OR) = 3.05), had pneumonia (OR = 3.15), asked repetitive questions (OR = 2.19), had a long-term memory problem (OR = 2.06), exhibited dementia (OR = 19.4), constipation (OR = 1.82), expressed sadness or pain (OR = 1.65), and used antipsychotic medication (OR = 1.70), were at an increased risk for developing wandering behavior compared to residents without these characteristics. Residents with functional impairment (OR = 0.28) and women (OR = 0.61) were less likely to develop wandering behavior.
Conclusions:
Results of this study may be useful in constructing causal theories for the development of wandering behavior.