Delirium and Clusters of Older Patients Affected by Multimorbidity in Acute Hospitals

Delirium is commonly seen in older adults with multimorbidity, during a hospitalization, resulting from the interplay between predisposing factors such as advanced age, frailty, and dementia, and a series of precipitating factors. The association between delirium and specific multimorbidity is largely unexplored so far although of potential key relevance for targeted interventions. The aim of the study was to check for a potential association of multimorbidity with delirium in a large cohort of older patients hospitalized for an acute medical or surgical condition.

This is a cross-sectional study nested in the 2017 Delirium Day project.

The study includes 1829 hospitalized patients (age: 81.8, SD: 5.5). Of them, 419 (22.9%) had delirium.

Sociodemographic and medical history were collected. The 4AT was used to assess the presence of delirium. The Charlson Comorbidity index was used to assess multimorbidity.

The results identified neurosensorial multimorbidity as the most prevalent, including patients with dementia, cerebrovascular diseases, and sensory impairments. In light of the highest co-occurrence of 3 neurosensorial chronic conditions, we could hypothesize that a baseline altered brain functional and neural connectivity might determine the vulnerability signature for incipient overall system disruption in presence of acute insults.

Eventually, our findings moved a step forward in supporting the key importance of routine screening for sensory impairments and cognitive status of older patients for the highest risk of in-hospital delirium. In fact, preventive interventions could be particularly relevant and effective in preventing delirium in such vulnerable populations and might help refining this early diagnosis.