Wandering behavior in veterans with psychiatric diagnoses residing in nursing homes

To investigate nursing home residents with psychiatric diagnoses who wander and who are not diagnosed with dementia.

A national cross-sectional study was conducted in a male Veterans Administration Nursing Home Care Unit population using a retrospective review of the MDS.

Eleven thousand six hundred and nineteen residents were identified as having a psychiatric diagnosis without significant cognitive impairment; just under 1% (n = 113) wandered. Using rare events logit regression, we determined that a diagnosis of schizophrenia/bipolar disorder or comorbid psychiatric conditions were associated with increased risk of wandering compared to residents diagnosed with anxiety/depression. Psychiatric wanderers were also more likely to, have symptoms of delirium, exhibit socially inappropriate behavior, manifest problems in decision-making, take anti-psychotic medications, and to be more independent in locomotion.

Psychiatric wanderers may be conceptualized better as exhibiting ambulatory concomitants of unremitted neurological/psychiatric symptoms or medication side effects of their treatment. Findings have implications for addressing treatable causes of wandering.