The Algase wandering scale: Initial psychometrics of a new caregiver reporting tool

This paper reports on the Algase wandering scale (AWS), a 28-item questionnaire, based on five dimensions of wandering. With factor analysis, an eight-factor solution explained nearly 70 percent of the variance in ratings for 151 long-term care subjects and confirmed three of the structuring dimensions. Reliability of the AWS was examined for internal consistency and for inter-rater reliability. The AWS had an alpha of .86; subscale alphas ranged between .88 (persistent walking) and .57 (routinized walking). Inter-rater reliabilities, estimated through crossrater comparisons of the AWS and subscales with a four-point judgement of wandering status, were moderately strong and no significant differences existed between two sets of raters. Validity of the AWS and its subscales was supported by examining their ability to differentiate wanderers and nonwanderers, by positive correlation with measures of cognitive impairment and with multiple parameters of observed wandering, and by negative or no correlations with nonwandering locomotion. Although the AWS may be a useful measure of wandering in long-term care settings, validation of its factor structure and evaluation in cross-cultural samples is needed.