Taking a Turn: A Quantitative Analysis of the Travel Habits of Adults Living With Dementia in Regional Waterloo

As Canada's population ages, many older adults will be aging in car-dependent suburbs. Suburbs present unique barriers to physical activity, which presents a risk to older adults, especially those with dementia. This MRP analyzes previously collected quantitative data from Biglieri (2019), collected by 7 participants living with dementia in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo over 2 weeks. Descriptive statistics were employed in the measurement of each participant's median trip length, median maximum distance from their home, in addition to the integration of their neighbourhood's roads, and the types of roads the participants tended to walk on. It appeared that participants that walked more often and further tended to walk on arterial and collector roads more often than those that walked less. In addition, the possible influence of confidence and gender on the propensity of PLWD to walk was also suggested. Finally, future directions for higher throughput studies were considered.