ReviewEuropean geriatric medicine2020
The financial and social costs of delirium.
Review in European geriatric medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of drug interventions to prevent delirium after surgery for older adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Pooled it
- Electroacupuncture for the prevention of perioperative neurocognitive disorder in elderly patients undergoing general anesthesia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Educational interventions aimed at improving knowledge of delirium among nursing home staff-a realist review.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- "Pleasantly confused" and missed opportunities for delirium recognition: A hospital record audit.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Article
- Delirium superimposed on dementia in nursing homes: prevalence, incidence, and prognosis - protocol of a prospective multicenter cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Improving delirium knowledge and recognition confidence in nursing homes through an e-learning program: a pre-post study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Delirium in older adults in the emergency department: a scoping review of current research and identified knowledge gaps.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond Triage: Cognitive Profiles and ED-To-Inpatient Costs and Resource Pathways in Older Adults.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2026Article
- Unraveling the role of polyamine metabolism in postoperative delirium: insights into biochemical mechanisms and biomarker potential.npj aging · 2026Article
- Article
- Electroacupuncture for the Prevention of Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder in Older Patients Undergoing General Anesthesia: Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Delirium prevalence and incidence in acutely admitted older patients: an observational cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Observational
- The Single Question in Delirium as a suitable tool to improve delirium detection in hospitalized older patients.European geriatric medicine · 2025Article
- Development of a nurse-led clinical pathway to prevent delirium in older adults in general hospital wards: a realist review protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- The risk of delirium or dementia-related hospitalization among individuals living with dementia after long-term care entry: A population-based risk prediction model.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Article
- Validation of the 4AT for assessing recovery from delirium in older hospital patients.Age and ageing · 2025Observational
- Delirium on presentation with a hip fracture is associated with adverse outcomes : a multicentre observational study of 18,040 patients using national clinical registry data.The bone & joint journal · 2025Observational
- Evaluation of Delirium Risk Factors in Intensive Care Patients.Turkish journal of anaesthesiology and reanimation · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeDelirium is common with serious short- and long-term sequelae. However, there are no licensed treatments internationally and relatively little biomedical discovery with the target of finding a cure, with the invisibility or underestimation of the economic implications as a potential driver for this inertia.
methodsWe conducted a narrative review of published literature in English quantitatively evaluating the financial and social costs of delirium to the health and care systems, patients and their carers.
resultsDelirium increases the cost of the index hospitalisation as well as increasing the need for post-acute care and the demands on unpaid, often older, carers. Delirium may cause as much as 10% of all cases of dementia and the ongoing need for care of these people with dementia doubles the cost of delirium. Prevention of delirium not only reduces the cost of delirium but also may decrease subsequent rate of dementia.
conclusionThe high cost of delirium itself as well as the resultant dementia warrants greater efforts to prevent delirium and discover effective treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.