RESUMO
Mobility combined with impaired mental functioning presents safety risks for Alzheimer's patients and poses an ethical dilemma for staff. This study, conducted on an Alzheimer's unit, tested seven different visual barrier conditions for reducing patient exists. Findings indicate that exiting was eliminated under two conditions. The results suggest visual agnosia, the inability to interpret what the eye sees, may be utilized as a tool in managing wandering behavior of Alzheimer's patients.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer/enfermagem , Acessibilidade Arquitetônica , Arquitetura de Instituições de Saúde , Percepção Visual , Prevenção de Acidentes , Idoso , Doença de Alzheimer/fisiopatologia , Estudos de Avaliação como Assunto , Feminino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMO
A random sample of 189 noninstitutionalized adults aged 75 and older was used to examine the influence of personal and social characteristics of the old-old on physician use. A path analysis traced direct and indirect effects of predisposing, enabling, and need variables within Andersen's health-behavior model. Income and perceived severity of symptoms were the only two variables with direct causal effects, whereas education, gender, race, living arrangements, and number of symptoms influenced physician use indirectly. Implications of the heterogeneity of the old-old for future research in health behavior are discussed.
