Agitation in nursing home residents: The role of gender and social context

We investigated the relationship among gender of resident, staff social. in teraction, and agitation in 46 (31 male and 15 female) nursing home residen ts with clinically significant agitation. Direct observations were conducte d of resident behaviors and environmental contextual events using a compute r-assisted, real-time observational system. The system recorded frequency, duration, and temporal sequencing of events. Results show that female resid ents displayed almost three times the amount of agitation as male residents (35% vs. 13% of total observation time, respectively), although men in the study were more likely to receive psychoactive drugs for their agitation. Staff spent similar amounts of time verbally interacting and touching male and female residents. Sequential analyses were conducted to examine the Lik elihood of staff verbal and touch interactions both preceding and following resident agitation using Bakeman and Quera's (1995) SDIS-GSEQ program. Res ults suggest that staff touch and verbal interaction elicit agitation in a significant proportion of residents. Once agitation occurs, staff were like ly to respond by interacting verbally, but not physically, with the residen t.