A psychological study on wandering behavior of the elderly with dementia

摘要

The present study examined psychologically control of the wandering behavior of the elderly with dementia which often cause crises to themselves and others. The subjects were four male and female wanderers above 65 years of age who continued to walk from morning to night, all day long. The control group was made up of four elderly with dementia without wandering behavior. The experiments were performed in the corridor of the home for the aged. The results obtained were as follows: 1. The experiment was begun to measure the total walking distance per day of a wanderer. For that, a pedometer was attached to the heel of the canvas shoes of every subject. The experimental group showed a mean walking distance of 12.1km per day. This was about 12 times as far as the control group. 2. The wanderers have been walking trying to reach objects or destinations which did not exist actually. This was one of the reasons why they walked so far. 3. The staff of the experiment could stop the walking of wanderers for more than 20 minutes by conversing with them on daily topics. This meant that the staff could control the wandering behavior of the elderly with dementia for more than 20 minutes. 4. Arnong the subjects, there were two persons who firmly believe them to be a married couple although they were utter strangers to each other. Usually they were wandering hand in hand. One of the staff separated them and took the "husband" to somewhere out of the "wife's" view. After that, the experimenter observed that the "wife" waited for her "husband's" return to her at the same place for more than 20 minutes. This meant that the "husband" controlled his "wife's" wandering behavior. 5. Again, the same couple participated in the next experiment where they were asked respectively to walk along a six meter straight white line on the Floor. The "husband" walked the line in less time and steps than "wife". But when they were asked to walk along the line together hand in hand, they showed an intermediate amount of time and steps. This fact seems to mean although they subjectively made an effort to match the partner's pace, objectively each controlled the pace of partner.