THE FEASIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC TRACKING DEVICES IN DEMENTIA - A TELEPHONE SURVEY AND CASE SERIES

Background. Patients with dementia who go out unaccompanied are at ris k of accidents or getting lost. It is not known whether they could ben efit from electronic tracking devices or whether such devices are prac tically feasible. Method. The likely demand for an electronic tracking device was assessed by means of a telephone survey of a convenience s ample of 99 carers. The practical feasibility of a tracking system was assessed in 24 patients with dementia. Results. The telephone survey suggested that 20% of patients were at continuing risk of traffic acci dents and 45% were at continuing risk of getting lost. About 7% could have benefited from using the device at the time of survey and a furth er 11% could have benefited at an earlier point in their illness. In t he feasibility study, only nine patients consistently used the device. In two patients, it was successfully used in a search. One patient wa s injured by a passing vehicle when he had got lost out of range of th e device. A major barrier to using the device was recognizing the risk of getting lost before it happened. Conclusion. Significant numbers o f patients are at risk. Electronic tracking devices may occasionally b e useful in carefully selected cases. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.