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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Environmental correlates of resident agitation in Alzheimer's disease special care units | | Author(s) | Philip D Sloane, Madeline Mitchell, John S Preisser |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 46, no 7, July 1998 |
| Pages | pp 862-869 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Nursing homes ; Residents [care homes] ; Behaviour disorders ; Quality of life ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | In this cross-sectional study, non-participant observers recorded 3723 observations of resident behaviours in 53 Alzheimer's disease (AD) special care units in nursing homes in Kansas, Maine, Mississippi and South Dakota. The most common agitated behaviours noted were repetitive mannerisms (4.5% of resident observations) and non-loud verbal excess (3.8%). Wandering, which frequently reflects agitation, was noted in 6.5% of observations. The proportion of residents exhibiting an agitated behaviour varied from none in some units to 38% in one unit. Independent correlates of low agitation levels included favourable scores on measures of physical environment and staff treatment activities, low rates of physical restraint use, a high proportion of residents in bed during the day, small unit size, low levels of resident functional dependency, and fewer numbers of comorbid conditions. While the prevalence of agitation tends to increase as AD progresses, modifiable treatment factors appear to have a strong influence on the prevalence of agitation. Both physical design and staff treatment appear to influence agitation rates, as do some measures consistent with a low stimulus approach to AD care. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980819006 A |
| Classmark | EA: LHB: KX: EP: F:59: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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