Observational studyClinical medicine (London, England)2022
NEWS2 shows low sensitivity and high specificity for delirium detection: a single site observational study of 13,908 patients.
Observational study in Clinical medicine (London, England), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early Risk Stratification of Delirium in Intermediate Care Units and Its Impact on 30-Day Mortality: A Decision-Tree Analysis.Clinics and practice · 2026Article
- Validation and performance of a geriatric early warning score (GEWS) versus the national early warning score (NEWS) in predicting clinical deterioration in frail older patients.European geriatric medicine · 2026Observational
- NEWS2 and the older person.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Delirium affects 25% of hospital admissions of older people and is a serious medical condition with poor outcomes. 'New confusion' as a delirium indicator was incorporated into the 'alert, verbal, pain and unresponsive' (AVPU) level of consciousness scale in the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) in 2017. We measured sensitivity of non-alert NEWS2 (new confusion and/or V, P or U ratings) for delirium through comparison with the four 'A's test (4AT) delirium tool in 13,908 consecutive non-elective hospital admissions. We included NEWS2 scores 4 hours before or after 4AT. There were 2,802 (20%) admissions with positive 4AT and 594 (4.3%) with non-alert NEWS2 status. Sensitivity of NEWS2 for 4AT ≥4 was 17.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 16.4-19.2), and specificity was 99.1% (95% CI 98.9-99.3). These findings suggest that NEWS2 in current practice has low sensitivity but high specificity for delirium. Further research is needed to improve routine inpatient monitoring for delirium.
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