ArticleAnnals of emergency medicine2025
Outcomes of Older Adults With Delirium Discharged From the Emergency Department.
Article in Annals of emergency medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Risk factors associated with delirium in older emergency department patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Prognostic Value of the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale for Mortality and Admission in Older Emergency Department Patients.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Early Diagnosis of Delirium in Geriatric Patients in Emergency Departments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Two Brief Steps, Better Foresight: Cognitive Screening and Adverse Outcomes in Older Adults Admitted From the Emergency Department.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 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
- Early discontinuation of antibiotic therapy initiated in the emergency department in older patients: a retrospective study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Observational
- Observational
- Barriers and Facilitators to the Fidelity of Delirium Screening in the Emergency Department: An Ethnographic Approach.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Delirium after surgery: a retrospective study of predictors, complications, and screening patterns in the national surgical quality improvement program.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Validation of 4 Risk Stratification Tools for Delirium in the Emergency Department.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Validation of a chart review method for identifying delirium in the emergency department.The American journal of emergency medicine · 2025Observational
- Stranded in the emergency department: an analysis of boarding trends in older adults in the United States.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectiveTo compare 30-day mortality and return emergency department (ED) visits among older adults with delirium who are discharged home with those discharged home without delirium and those who are admitted to the hospital with and without delirium.
methodsAdults aged 75 and older years were assessed for delirium using the Delirium Triage Screen followed by the Brief Confusion Assessment Method. We evaluated outcomes including return visits and 30-day mortality. Models were adjusted by age, sex, dementia, Modified Early Warning Score, and ED length of stay and summarized with adjusted relative risk (aRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsThe study included 22,940 visits. Among them, 202 (0.9%) delirium-positive patients were discharged, and 730 (3.2%) were admitted to the hospital to non-ICU and nonmonitored beds. Discharged patients with delirium had higher 30-day mortality (aRR 2.86, 95% CI 2.04 to 4.00) and were more likely to return to the ED within 30 days (aRR 1.52, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.61) compared with those discharged without delirium. Discharged delirium-positive patients were more likely to return to the ED within 30 days than hospitalized delirium-positive patients (aRR 1.92, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.92), though they experienced lower 30-day mortality (aRR 0.67, 95% CI 0.47 to 0.93). Age, sex, Modified Early Warning Score, dementia, and length of stay were not associated with mortality or ED return.
conclusionPatients discharged with delirium experienced a 3-fold increase in mortality within 30 days compared with those discharged without delirium. These findings suggest a need for more precise discharge criteria and enhanced follow-up care for delirious patients to improve safety. Implementing structured screening and tailored postdischarge support could reduce adverse outcomes in this population.
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