The relationship between social interaction and characteristics of aggressive, cognitively impaired nursing home residents

Abstract

The extent of social interaction of aggressive, cognitively impaired nursing home residents and the relationship between social interaction and selected resident characteristics were explored in this study, which was part of a larger experimental study of the effect of dementia education for staff on the aggressive behavior of cognitively impaired residents. Staff rated residents using the Social Interaction Scale (SIS),which has two subscales: Institutional Interaction and Family/Community Interaction. Mean SIS scores were low; institutional interaction scores were higher than family/community scores. Marital status, morale, degree of cognitive impairment, dependency, and sexual aggression were significantly associated with social interaction, but gender and age were not.