A Relationship between Depression and Wandering in Community-Dwelling Elders with Dementia

Abstract

Background and Purpose Wandering is one of the most common behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, and associated with some of the adverse outcomes in dementia, such as getting lost or even death. The etiology of wandering is not yet clearly known. As de- pression and wandering are both very common among the patients with dementia, this study examined the relationship between the depres- sion and wandering among the community dwelling patients with dementia. Methods Fiſty community dwelling patients diagnosed with dementia were included in this study if they had primary family caregiver, older than age 18 in Seoul, South Korea. The Geriatric Depression Scale, Korean Version (GDS-K), Korean Version of the Mini-Mental State Ex- amination (K-MMSE) and Korean Version of Revised Algase Wandering Scale-Community Version (K-RAWS-CV) were used to measure the severity of depression, cognitive function and wandering. Results Thirty percents of the patients showed wandering. Mean score of GDS-K was significantly higher in wanderers than non-wanderers. Severity of depression was significantly correlated with the total score of K-RAWS-CV and subscales of persistent walking, repetitive walking, eloping behavior, and mealtime impulsivity in whole sample. K-MMSE score also was related to wandering behavior. The prevalence odds ra- tio for wandering in depressed patients compared with undepressed group was 8.386 (95% confidence interval: 1.978–35.561). Conclusions This study implicates that not only cognitive impairment but also psychosocial aspects should be considered in wandering pa- tients with dementia and suggests assessing the depression in patients would be helpful in identifying the causes of wandering.