Risk for Acute Confusion on Hospital Admission

Bonnie J. Wakefield
Additional contact information
Bonnie J. Wakefield: Iowa City VA Medical Center

Clinical Nursing Research, 2002, vol. 11, issue 2, 153-172

Abstract: Elderly individuals are at risk for acute confusion (AC) during hospitalization. Using a prospective design, this study assessed the relationship between admission risk factors and subsequent development of AC in 117 elderly hospitalized patients. AC was ascertained using the NEECHAM Confusion Scale. Other measures included demographic data, cognitive status, physical function, laboratory data, medications, infections, activity, pain, and nursing acuity. The cumulative incidence estimate was 14%. Patients who developed AC were more likely to be admitted to the hospital from somewhere other than home, to have lower admission NEECHAM and MMSE scores, and to have restricted activity levels, an infection, and abnormal lab values. These patients were more cognitively and physically frail and may have been chronically undernourished and dehydrated on admission to the hospital. Nurses can be trained to routinely assess for acute confusion using easily implemented instruments incorporated into a research-based protocol.

Date: 2002
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/105477380201100205 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:clnure:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:153-172

DOI: 10.1177/105477380201100205

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Clinical Nursing Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().