Recognizing acute delirium as part of your routine [RADAR]: a validation study

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Clinical Nursing
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Current delirium detection tools face challenges in routine clinical practice.
• The RADAR tool was developed with nursing staff to overcome limitations of existing methods.
• RADAR aims for improved administration time, ease-of-use, and generalizability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the validity and reliability of the RADAR screening tool.
• To assess the acceptability of the RADAR tool among nursing staff.
• To determine RADAR's suitability in acute care and long-term care settings.

Main Methods:

• A validation study conducted across acute care and long-term care facilities.
• 142 patients and 51 residents (≥65 years) participated, alongside 139 trained nurses.
• Inter-rater reliability, convergent, and concurrent validity were assessed using DSM-IV-TR criteria.

Main Results:

• High agreement (82%-98%) between nurse and researcher administration of RADAR items.
• RADAR demonstrated 73% sensitivity and 67% specificity for delirium detection.
• The tool averaged seven seconds for completion and was highly accepted (≥98%) by nursing staff.

Conclusions:

• The RADAR tool is efficient, reliable, sensitive, and well-accepted for delirium screening.
• It is an appropriate option for older adults, with or without cognitive impairment, in hospitals and nursing homes.
• Further validation is planned for diverse populations and clinical settings.