Question

Read an excerpt from the following abstract and answer the associated questions.

A Descriptive Study of Elderly Patients With Dementia Who Died Wandering Outdoors in Kochi Prefecture, Japan

This was a descriptive study of elderly persons with dementia who were found dead after becoming lost in the community. Causes of death were drowning (n = 8), trauma (n = 5), hypothermia (n = 2), and debilitation possibly due to fatigue (n = 1) or were unknown (n = 3).

1. List the Independent Variable(s).
2. List the dependent variable(s)

3. In your opinion how generalizable is this study? Why?

4. How can this study help inform evidence based practice

Answer 1

1. Here, independent variable is "Becoming lost "

2. dependent variable is "Causes of death"

3. To generalize a study, the sample population should be of significant size and contain individuals from all levels of society. Here, sample size is only 18, so generalization of this study has little statistical value.

4. This study reveals the causes of death after missing elderly dementia patients. drowning is the most common cause of death followed by trauma. With this knowledge, we can increase the security and ease the searching process of dementia patients when missing is reported.