Cognitive discriminants of wandering among nursing home residents

Dimensions of cognitive impairment that best discriminated between wandering and nonwandering ambulatory subjects were studied. Cognitive impairment was measured along four dimensions: abstract thinking, language, judgement, and spatial skills. Wanderers had higher overall levels of cognitive impairment and poorer performance on all cognitive dimensions. The dimension of language was the most important higher order cognitive skill differentiating wanderers from nonwanderers; basic cognitive skill deficits (memory, orientation, concentration) and medical bases of cognitive impairment also contributed to the distinction between the groups. Overall classification rates obtained by linear classification function (LCF) analyses were only slightly better than chance rates. However, LCF rates for nonwanderers ranged from 93% to 95%, suggesting greater homogeneity in the cognitive impairments specific to this group.