The odds of returning home after a hospital stay are slimmer for patients with delirium compared to those without, according to a new study of more than 27,000 adults. Nearly half were not able to do so.
Researchers from the University of Zurich in Switzerland partnered with investigators at Yale and Harvard Universities to examine hospital discharge data from more than 27,000 patients between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2014, at the University Hospital in Zurich. Delirium was detected in 19.7% of the patients, and the median age of delirious patients was 56 years.
They found that delirium was associated with reduced odds of returning home upon discharge, compared to patients without a delirium diagnosis. Of those without delirium, 91.7% of patients were discharged to home. That compares to 50.1% of those with delirium. Rather, these patients were transferred to acute rehabilitation (22.2%) or nursing homes (6.6%). Significantly more delirious patients died during their hospital stay — 11.3% of those with delirium, compared to 0.3% without a delirium diagnosis.
These findings emphasize the potentially devastating outcomes associated with delirium and highlight the need for timely diagnosis and management of the conditions. Study results also support further research on the adverse
consequences of delirium and call for implementation of prevention and management strategies, and perhaps even additional training for nursing home and acute rehab staff when it comes to delirium detection and management.
“Caretakers are advised to apply preventive strategies in patients at risk, for example, avoiding medications that may trigger delirium, and providing adequate pain management,” the authors wrote.
Full findings ran in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
