Abstract
Objectives
Delirium is commonly seen in older adults with multimorbidity, during a hospitalization,
resulting from the interplay between predisposing factors such as advanced age, frailty,
and dementia, and a series of precipitating factors. The association between delirium
and specific multimorbidity is largely unexplored so far although of potential key
relevance for targeted interventions. The aim of the study was to check for a potential
association of multimorbidity with delirium in a large cohort of older patients hospitalized
for an acute medical or surgical condition.
Design
This is a cross-sectional study nested in the 2017 Delirium Day project.
Setting and Participants
The study includes 1829 hospitalized patients (age: 81.8, SD: 5.5). Of them, 419 (22.9%)
had delirium.
Methods
Sociodemographic and medical history were collected. The 4AT was used to assess the
presence of delirium. The Charlson Comorbidity index was used to assess multimorbidity.
Results
The results identified neurosensorial multimorbidity as the most prevalent, including
patients with dementia, cerebrovascular diseases, and sensory impairments. In light
of the highest co-occurrence of 3 neurosensorial chronic conditions, we could hypothesize
that a baseline altered brain functional and neural connectivity might determine the
vulnerability signature for incipient overall system disruption in presence of acute
insults.
Conclusions and Implications
Eventually, our findings moved a step forward in supporting the key importance of
routine screening for sensory impairments and cognitive status of older patients for
the highest risk of in-hospital delirium. In fact, preventive interventions could
be particularly relevant and effective in preventing delirium in such vulnerable populations
and might help refining this early diagnosis.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 16, 2021
Footnotes
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
