Getting Out of the House: The Relationship of Venturing into the Community and Neurocognition Among Adults With Serious Mental Illness

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if environmental novelty was associated with neurocognitive function among adults with serious mental illness. Method: Participants were recruited from community mental health centers (n = 117), and received a Global Positioning System (GPS) enab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatric rehabilitation journal 2022-03, Vol.45 (1), p.18-25
Main Authors: McCormick, Bryan P., Brusilovskiy, Eugene, Snethen, Gretchen, Klein, Louis, Townley, Greg, Salzer, Mark S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Bipolar Disorder
Cognition
Cognitive Ability
Community Involvement
Community Participation
Disabled Persons
Female
Human
Humans
Major Depression
Male
Mental disorders
Mental Disorders - rehabilitation
Navigation Technology
Neurocognition
Participation
Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Psychosis
Serious Mental Illness
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Summary:Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if environmental novelty was associated with neurocognitive function among adults with serious mental illness. Method: Participants were recruited from community mental health centers (n = 117), and received a Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled cellular phone for 13 days. Data were also collected on cognitive function and recent participation in community-based activities. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to identify differences in neurocognitive function between participants who predominantly stayed in their homes ("homebodies") versus those who ventured more often from their homes ("venturers"). Analyses were also undertaken to identify if the nature of community participation activities mediated the relationship of neurocognitive function to group membership. Results: Overall, 74% of GPS signals were from participants' home residence. Homebodies demonstrated significantly poorer cognitive function than venturers, and this relationship was not mediated by a number of unique destinations or breadth of community participation activities. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: This study identified a subset of adults with serious mental illnesses who left their homes infrequently and who demonstrate significantly poorer cognitive function than those who left their homes more frequently. Spending extensive amounts of time in an unchanging environment may be a contributing factor to poor cognitive function, and a potential area for intervention. Impact and Implications This study found that among adults with serious mental illness, spending a majority of days never leaving the home was associated with poorer neurocognitive function. Given that neurocognition is known to respond to environmental demands, spending extended periods in a single home environment may provide little stimulation and hence little opportunity to support neurocognitive abilities.
ISSN:1095-158X
1559-3126
DOI:10.1037/prj0000483