Most Alzheimer’s patients who are found dead after walking away from their home or assisted-living facility tend to stray no more than a mile, even though it may take days or weeks to find them, according to a new University of Florida study.
The study showed that persons with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia who roam tend to stick surprisingly close to home and seclude themselves.
Meredith Rowe with the UF College of Nursing said in a recent issue of American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias that those with the disease aren’t likely to respond when searchers call for them, unlike most missing adults or children.
Dementia is a condition in which someone is mentally incompetent, and Alzheimer’s is responsible for at least 70 percent of all dementia cases in the United States and afflicts nearly half of all people 85 and older.
Currently, there are about 4.5 million people in the United States with Alzheimer’s, and researchers say that number could grow to 16 million by the year 2050.
For the UF study, researchers examined American newspapers from 1998 to 2002, looking for incidents in which people with dementia became lost and died. They found 93 cases that fit those criteria.
“There were no reports of these individuals responding to calls of searchers looking for them, even though searchers often were very close to where the individual was eventually found,” Ms. Rowe said. “The problem-solving skills of these individuals are impaired, so when they become scared, they may try to find protection from the outside world instead of responding to aid.”
Eighty-seven percent of victims in the UF study were found in unpopulated natural areas around their homes, such as woods, fields, bodies of water or ditches.
Most left areas where they could be easily seen and secluded themselves in natural and abandoned areas, where they remained until they succumbed to the elements. In 68 percent of cases, the cause of death was exposure to the outdoors. That was followed by drowning in 21 percent of cases.
Ms. Rowe said 65 of the 93 deaths — or about 70 percent — occurred in the coldest or warmest months of the years. In a third of the cases, it took more than a week to find the victims.
The nurse cautioned that caregivers should not assume a missing dementia patient is seeking out a former residence or place of work.
A patient’s path is usually totally unpredictable, she said, and urged law enforcement officers to “conduct repeated searches that comb nearby areas thoroughly.”
“Since most patients are found alive, the first 12 hours of a search should focus on populated areas, such as residential yards, businesses, highways and sidewalks.
“However, after the first six to 12 hours, it is critical for law enforcement to intensively search natural and secluded areas in a one-mile radius of where the person disappeared,” Ms. Rowe said.
A recent search for a dementia patient in Jacksonville, Fla., was assisted by recommendations based on the UF research, according to Sgt. Michael Eason, supervisor of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Missing Persons list.
“What we have found in the past — which is supported by the research — is that these searches are like finding a needle in a haystack. At times, the most sophisticated searches using technology and dogs do not succeed,” Sgt. Eason said.
He added: “We are now working on a training segment for our officers using Doctor Rowe’s research and expertise. I would recommend that police departments around the country have a specific procedure in place for these types of missing persons.
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