The Effect of a Supervised Walking Program on Wandering Among Residents with Dementia

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to evaluate the effect of a supervised walking intervention on wandering frequency among nursing home residents with DAT who were classified as wanderers. Thirteen subjects, in an A-B-A design, were evaluated on wandering frequency using an instantaneous time-sampling recording technique before, during and after a walking program was conducted. A descriptive analysis revealed that a walking program had minimal impact on overall wandering frequency. However, a sub-grouping of wanderers based on cognitive level demonstrated a more pronounced effect among early to middle stage dementia wanderers (pre = 24%, during = 17%, post = 25%), whereas the middle to late dementia wanderers showed virtually no difference (pre = 45%, during = 46%, post = 47%) in self-initiated ambulatory behavior. The authors suggest that working memory differences between the two sub-sets of wanderers was most attributable to the effectiveness of the walking intervention.