The relationship between frailty and delirium: insights from the 2017 Delirium Day study.

Background: although frailty and delirium are among the most frequent and burdensome geriatric syndromes, little is known about their association and impact on short-term mortality. Objective: to examine, in hospitalized older persons, whether frailty is associated with delirium, and whether these two conditions, alone or in combination, affect these patients' 30-day survival. Design: observational study nested in the Delirium Day project, with 30-day follow-up. Setting: acute medical wards (n = 118) and rehabilitation wards (n = 46) in Italy. Subjects: a total of 2,065 individuals aged 65+ years hospitalized in acute medical (1,484 patients, 71.9%) or rehabilitation (581 patients, 28.1%) wards. Methods: a 25-item Frailty Index (FI) was created. Delirium was assessed using the 4AT test. Vital status was ascertained at 30 days. Results: overall, 469 (22.7%) patients experienced delirium on the index day and 82 (4.0%) died during follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, each FI score increase of 0.1 significantly increased the odds of delirium (odds ratio, OR: 1.66 [95% CI: 1.45-1.90]), with no difference between the acute (OR: 1.65 [95% CI: 1.41-1.93]) and rehabilitation ward patients (OR: 1.71 [95% CI: 1.27-2.30]). The risk of dying during follow-up also increased significantly for every FI increase of 0.1 in the overall population (OR: 1.65 [95% CI: 1.33-2.05]) and in the acute medical ward patients (OR: 1.61 [95% CI: 1.28-2.04]), but not in the rehabilitation patients. Delirium was not significantly associated with 30-day mortality in either hospital setting. Conclusions: in hospitalized older patients, frailty is associated with delirium and with an increased risk of short-term mortality

The association between low skeletal muscle mass and delirium: results from the nationwide multi-centre Italian Delirium Day 2017.

Introduction: Delirium and sarcopenia are common, although underdiagnosed, geriatric syndromes. Several pathological mechanisms can link delirium and low skeletal muscle mass, but few studies have investigated their association. We aimed to investigate (1) the association between delirium and low skeletal muscle mass and (2) the possible role of calf circumference mass in finding cases with delirium. Methods: The analyses were conducted employing the cross-sectional "Delirium Day" initiative, on patient 65 years and older admitted to acute hospital medical wards, emergency departments, rehabilitation wards, nursing homes and hospices in Italy in 2017. Delirium was diagnosed as a 4 + score at the 4-AT scale. Low skeletal muscle mass was operationally defined as calf circumference ≤ 34 cm in males and ≤ 33 cm in females. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between low skeletal muscle mass and delirium. The discriminative ability of calf circumference was evaluated using non-parametric ROC analyses. Results: A sample of 1675 patients was analyzed. In total, 73.6% of participants had low skeletal muscle mass and 24.1% exhibited delirium. Low skeletal muscle mass and delirium showed an independent association (OR: 1.50; 95% CI 1.09-2.08). In the subsample of patients without a diagnosis of dementia, the inclusion of calf circumference in a model based on age and sex significantly improved its discriminative accuracy [area under the curve (AUC) 0.69 vs 0.57, p < 0.001]. Discussion and conclusion: Low muscle mass is independently associated with delirium. In patients without a previous diagnosis of dementia, calf circumference may help to better identify those who develop delirium