Survival of Frail Elderly with Delirium

Guillermo Cano-Escalera, Manuel Graña, Jon Irazusta, Idoia Labayen and Ariadna Besga
Additional contact information
Guillermo Cano-Escalera: Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
Manuel Graña: Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
Jon Irazusta: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48013 Bilbao, Spain
Idoia Labayen: Institute for Innovation & Sustainable Development in Food Chain (IS-FOOD), Public University of Navarra, 31006 Pamplona, Spain
Ariadna Besga: BioAraba, Health Research Institute, Hospital Universitario de Araba, Department of Medicine, 01004 Vitoria, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: This study aims to determine when frailty increases the risks of delirium mortality. Hospital patients falling into the elderly frail or pre-frail category were recruited, some without delirium, some with delirium at admission, and some who developed delirium during admission. We screened for frailty, cognitive status, and co-morbidities whenever possible and extracted drug information and mortality data from electronic health records. Kaplan–Meier estimates of survival probability functions were computed at four times, comparing delirium versus non delirium patients. Differences in survival were assessed by a log-rank test. Independent Cox’s regression was carried out to identify significant hazard risks (HR) at 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. Delirium predicted mortality (log-rank test, p < 0.0001) at all four censoring points. Variables with significant HRs were frailty indicators, comorbidities, polypharmacy, and the use of specific drugs. For the delirium cohort, variables with the most significant 2-year hazard risks (HR(95%CI)) were: male gender (0.43 20 (0.26,0.69)), weight loss (0.45 (0.26,0.74)), sit and stand up test (0.67 (0.49,0.92)), readmission within 30 days of discharge (0.50 (0.30,0.80)), cerebrovascular disease (0.45 (0.27,0.76)), head trauma (0.54 22 (0.29,0.98)), number of prescribed drugs (1.10 (1.03,1.18)), and the use of diuretics (0.57 (0.34,0.96)). These results suggest that polypharmacy and the use of diuretics increase mortality in frail elderly patients with delirium.

Keywords: delirium; frailty; survival; polypharmacy; ageing population; hospital admission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2247/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2247/ (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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2247-:d:750988

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().