Dementia and Immobility

Abstract

Structured physical and psychiatric assessments were performed on 100 elderly women with dementia admitted to either a geriatric or a geriatric psychiatry unit, and the relationship between physical and mental factors and the ability to transfer was investigated. There was an association between limited mobility and physical and psychiatric evidence of cerebrovascular and cardiac disease; but none between mobility and most measures of degree of dementia, vision, hearing, balance, cerebellar function, position sense, ankle reflexes, postural hypotension, locomotor disease, medication or ratings for depression, anxiety, irritability, hostility, lack of co-operation, suspiciousness, or distractibility. This suggests that in dementia the main cause of limited mobility is focal neurological damage.

Activities of Daily Living, Cognitive Impairment and Social Function in Community Residents with Alzheimer Disease

“…Most research has focused on the prevalence and etiology of the disease although there are reports correlating cognition and function in dementia (Aske, 1990;MacLennan, Ballinger, McHarg & Ogston;Reed, Jagust & Seab, 1989;Teunisse, Derix & van Crevel, 1991;Uhlmann, Larson & Buchner, 1987).…”

Case studies in the nursing management of urinary incontinence in confused, elderly patients

“…In a study of 100 female in-patients diagnosed as suffering from dementia, no association was found between dementia and a generalised decline in neurological function (MacLennan et al, 1987). Focal neurological damage associated with problems of gait, balance and mobility was more likely to be associated with vascular dementia, it was concluded.…”

Dementia psychiatric symptoms and immobility: A one‐year follow‐up

“…Diagnoses were based on the International Classification of Disease Criteria (ICD-9) using the history, psychiatric and physical examinations. Patients were included if, at this stage, they had a Clifton Assessment Procedure information/orientation score of 6 or less (MacLennan et al, 1987). They were given a physical assessment which included information on whether a patient was suffering from cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease or another neurological disorder.…”

“…In a previous cross-sectional study we investigated the question of whether senile dementia of Alzheimer type (SDAT) or multi-infarct dementia (MID or arteriosclerotic dementia) were associated with a reduction in mobility (MacLennan et al, 1987). The study identified a strong relationship between psychiatric and physical evidence of cerebrovascular disease and limited mobility but there was none between global tests of mental function and mobility.…”