Pacing and lapping movements among institutionalized patients with dementia.

Wandering is a complex behavior, and defining wandering has been challenging. The current study used the integrated circuit (IC) tag monitoring system to describe the distance moved per day and the spatial movements of patients with dementia. The study was conducted in a 60-bed semiacute dementia care unit in a general hospital in Japan over a 3-month period in 2006. The distance moved per day, the numbers of pacing and lapping movements, and the proportions of the distance moved that was paced or lapped were tabulated in 23 patients diagnosed with dementia. The distance moved per day and the numbers of pacing and lapping movements varied greatly within and among study participants. The median distance moved per day was inversely correlated with participants' age and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores (adjusted r(2) = .34, P = .01). Consecutive lapping and pacing movements were rare patients with in Alzheimer's disease (AD), while 2 patients with frontotemporal dementia paced or lapped repeatedly.