| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Biomechanical activity devices to index wandering behaviour in dementia
University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
University of Michigan School of Social Work, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Valid and reliable measures of wandering are needed to study this troubling behavior. Although researchers have used various perspectives, definitions, and approaches to study wandering, spontaneous ambulation is a key characteristic across all views. Biomechanical activity devices for capturing movement provide one way to index wandering. This study examined four devices with ambulatory nursing home residents with dementia (N = 178) who wore devices simultaneously during four observations. Among the Actillume, StepWatch, Step Sensor, and TriTrac-R3D, the StepWatch yielded data from the highest proportion of observations, explained the most variance (63.9 percent) among all instruments, and was acceptable to nursing staff. Although the Step Sensor was the staff's preferred device, its performance was least acceptable for research purposes. Results support use of the StepWatch in future studies of wandering.
Key Words: biomechanical activity devices • dementia • wandering behavior
American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias®, Vol. 18, No. 2,
85-92 (2003) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
