Objective To investigate the status quo of wander behavior among inpatients with senile dementia and discuss relevant risk factors.Methods Totally 84 inpatients with senile dementia from the Department of Geriatrics of Shanghai Mental Health Center were selected, evaluated with Revised-Algase Wandering Scale (RAWS), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), and divided into a wandering group (69 patients) and a non-wandering group (15 patients). The risk factors related to wander behavior were analyzed.Results The incidence of wander behavior among the inpatients with senile dementia was 82.1%, with spatial disorientation as the main form in RAWS factor analysis; The MMSE score of the patients in the wandering group was (2.58±5.65), lower than that of the patients in the non-wandering group, and their NPI score was (17.88±7.93), higher than that of the patients in the non-wandering group (t=2.89, 2.21;P<0.05). According to the Logistic Stepwise Multiple Regression, wander was closely related to severity of dementia, mental and behavior disorder and NPI apatheia.Conclusions Wander behavior is widely found among patients with senile dementia and brings great difficulty to their caregivers. Therefore, studies on their causes play a practical part in improving the treatment, nursing and family care for patients with senile dementia and preventing them from getting lost, felling down and being injured.