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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Using a Real-Time Locating System to Measure Walking Activity Associated with Wandering Behaviors Among Institutionalized Older Adults
Published on: February 8, 2019
Mapping the maze of terms and definitions in dementia-related wandering
D L Algase1, D Helen Moore, C Vandeweerd
1University of Michigan School of Nursing, Michigan, USA.
Purpose:
An operational definition of dementia-related wandering is proposed to aid in clinical recognition, to promote research precision and validity, and to provide a pathway toward standardization of language in wandering science.
Design And Methods:
(1) One-hundred-and-eighty-three journal articles from multiple databases (Medline, OVID, CSA Journals, OCLC First Search, Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCO) were reviewed to extract alternative terms and definitions for wandering or wandering-related behaviours; (2) terms and definitions were ordered alphabetically into a glossary; (3) a consensus approach was used to group glossary terms with related meanings into possible domains of wandering; (4) four domains (locomotion, drive, space and time) were found sufficient to encompass all wandering definitions; (5) wandering terms were placed into a conceptual map bounded by the four domain concepts and (6) a new provisional definition of wandering was formulated.
Results:
An empirically-based, operational definition improves clinical and research approaches to wandering and explicates historical inattention to certain beneficial aspects of the behaviour.
Implications:
Adoption of the proposed operational definition of wandering behaviour provides a platform upon which dementia care may be improved and standardized language may evolve in wandering science.
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