Wandering Is Health Risk For 1 In 5 Cognitively Impaired Nursing Home Patients

In a study involving over 15,000 cognitively impaired VA nursing home patients, researchers from the International Research Consortium on Wandering found that one in five were prone to aimless wandering through nursing home facilities, putting themselves at increased health risk and creating additional strain on nursing staff. This presents a challenging behavior problem and safety issue. Adverse outcomes associated with wandering include an increased incidence of weight loss, fatigue, sleep disturbance, getting lost, injuries as a result of falling and untimely death. Wandering can also lead to increased caregiver stress, stress among other residents due to intrusions into their rooms and safety concerns that challenge care providers responsible for managing behavior problems.