title: Out-of-home behavior and cognitive impairment in older adults: findings of the SenTra Project.
abstract: This study explores differences in the out-of-home behavior of community-dwelling older adults with different cognitive impairment. Three levels of complexity of out-of-home behavior were distinguished: (a) mostly automatized walking behavior (low complexity), (b) global out-of-home mobility (medium complexity), and (c) defined units of concrete out-of-home activities, particularly cognitively demanding activities (high complexity). A sample of 257 older adults aged 59 to 91 years (M = 72.9 years, SD = 6.4 years) included 35 persons with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), 76 persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 146 cognitively healthy persons (CH). Mobility data were gathered by using a GPS tracking device as well as by questionnaire. Predicting cognitive impairment status by out-of-home behavior and a range of confounders by means of multinomial logistic regression revealed that only cognitively demanding activities showed at least a marginally significant difference between MCI and CH and were highly significant between AD and CH.
authors.affiliation: Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wettstein
authors.affiliation: Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany h.w.wahl@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de.
authors.forename: Hans-Werner
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.affiliation: Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shoval
authors.affiliation: Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oswald
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.affiliation: Klinikum Stuttgart, Department of Psychiatry, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Seidl
authors.affiliation: Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frölich
authors.affiliation: Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Auslander
authors.affiliation: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Jeremia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinik
authors.affiliation: Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Landau
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005852:Geriatric Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D051346:Mobility Limitation; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; GPS tracking technology; mild cognitive impairment; old age; out-of-home behavior