Abstract
Background
cognitive impairment is highly prevalent among older patients attending the Emergency Department (ED) and is associated with adverse outcomes.
Methods
we conducted a systematic ...review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of cognitive screening instruments to rule out cognitive impairment in older patients in the ED. A comprehensive literature search was performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and CENTRAL. A risk of bias assessment using QUADAS-2 was performed.
Results
23 articles, examining 18 different index tests were included. Only seven index tests could be included in the meta-analysis. For ruling out cognitive impairment irrespective of aetiology, Ottawa 3 Day Year (O3DY) (pooled sensitivity 0.90; (95% CI) 0.71–0.97) had the highest sensitivity. Fourteen articles focused on screening for cognitive impairment specifically caused by delirium. For ruling out delirium, the 4 A’s Test (4AT) showed highest sensitivity (pooled sensitivity 0.87, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.74–0.94).
Conclusions
high clinical and methodological heterogeneity was found between included studies. Therefore, it is a challenge to recommend one diagnostic test for use as a screening instrument for cognitive impairment in the ED. The 4AT and O3DY seem most promising for ruling out cognitive impairment in older patients attending the ED.
The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42018082509).
Objectives
Change in cognitive functioning is often observed after hip fracture. Different patterns, with both improvement and decline, are expected, depending on premorbid cognitive functioning and ...events that occur during hospitalization. These patterns are unknown and important for older hip fracture patients with different levels of premorbid cognitive functioning.
Design, Setting, Participants, Measurements
We conducted a secondary analysis of a multi‐center randomized controlled trial. 302 consecutive patients aged 65–102 years old, admitted for hip fracture surgery, were enrolled. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) was obtained at hospital admission, at discharge, and at 3 and 12 months after discharge. Cognitive trajectories were identified with Group Based Trajectory Modelling, using the repeated MMSE measurements as outcome variable. To illustrate the specific characteristics of this relative novel methodological approach, it was contrasted with results obtained from linear mixed effects modeling.
Results
146 (48.3%) patients had premorbid cognitive impairment and 85 patients (28.1%) experienced delirium during admission. Three distinct cognitive trajectories were identified and labeled based on different MMSE course over time: improvement (57.9%), stable (28.1%), and rapid decline (13.9%), with an annual MMSE change of 1.7, 0.8, and −3.5 points respectively. With mixed effects modeling an overall annual increase of 0.7 MMSE points was estimated for the group as a whole.
Conclusion
Three distinct cognitive trajectories were identified in a population of older hip fracture patients. These trajectory groups can be used as a starting point to inform patients and caregivers on the possible prognosis after hip fracture. Group based trajectory modelling is a useful technique when the purpose is to describe patterns of change within a population and a variety of trajectories are expected to exist.
Objectives
Delirium frequently arises in older demented and non‐demented patients in postoperative, clinical settings. To date, the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. ...Monoamine neurotransmitter alterations have been linked to delirium and cognitive impairment. Our aim was to investigate if this holds true in cognitively normal and impaired patients experiencing delirium following hip surgery.
Methods
Monoamines and metabolites were measured in plasma samples of 181 individuals by means of reversed‐phase ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Delirium and delirium severity were scored with the Confusion Assessment Method and Delirium Rating Scale‐Revised‐1998. Cognitive function was assessed using the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline and the Mini‐Mental State Examination, multimorbidity with the Charlson Comorbidity Index.
Results
Plasma 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5‐HIAA), the major metabolite of serotonin (5‐HT), was significantly higher in delirious and non‐delirious cognitively impaired subjects as compared to control individuals without delirium and cognitive impairment (p < 0.001 and p = 0.007), which remained highly significant after excluding patients taking psychotropic medication (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.003). No significant differences were found for cognitively normal delirious patients, although serotonergic levels were numerically higher compared to control counterparts.
Conclusions
Our findings indicate a general serotonergic disturbance in delirious and non‐delirious postoperative patients suffering from cognitive impairment. We observed a similar, but less pronounced difference in delirious patients, which suggests serotonergic disturbances may be further aggravated by the co‐occurrence of delirium and cognitive impairment.
Key points
Plasma 5‐HIAA was significantly higher in delirious and non‐delirious cognitively impaired patients compared to control individuals
5‐HIAA levels remained significantly higher after excluding patients using psychotropic medication
A numerical increase in plasma 5‐HIAA of delirious patients may still suggest an aggravating effect of delirium and cognitive impairment
Objectives
This study aims to develop and pilot a hospital care coordination team intervention for patients with multimorbidity and identify key uncertainties
Methods
Practice-based, participatory ...pilot study with mixed methods in a middle-large teaching hospital. We included adult patients who had visited seven or more outpatient specialist clinics in 2018. The intervention consisted of an intake, a comprehensive review by a dedicated care coordination team, a consultation to discuss results and two follow-up appointments. We collected both quantitative and qualitative data.
Results
Out of 131 invited patients, 28 participants received the intake and comprehensive review. The intervention resulted in mixed outputs and short-term outcomes. Among the 28 participants, 21 received recommendations for at least two out of three categories (medication, involved medical specialists, other). Patients’ experienced effects ranged from no to very large effects. Key uncertainties were how to identify patients with a need for care coordination and the minimum of required data that can be collected during regular clinical care with feasible effort.
Discussion
Recruitment and selection for hospital care coordination should be refined to include patients with multimorbidity who might benefit most. Outcomes of research and clinical care should align and first focus on evaluating the results of care coordination before evaluating health-related outcomes.
Aim
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has become an important treatment option for older patients with severe aortic stenosis. However, not all patients benefit from this procedure in ...terms of functional outcome and quality of life. This complicates patient selection and shared decision‐making. Postoperative delirium might negatively affect patient outcomes after TAVI. We therefore studied the potential relationship between postoperative delirium and functional outcome, and how this impacts quality of life after TAVI.
Methods
This was a prospective cohort study of 91 consecutive patients undergoing TAVI between 2015 and 2017 at an academic medical center. All patients underwent a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment before TAVI. Delirium symptoms were assessed daily during hospitalization. Follow up was carried out between 6 and 12 months postprocedure. The primary outcome was functional decline or death at follow up. Secondarily, we measured quality of life at follow up.
Results
The incidence of postoperative delirium was 15.4%. In total, 38.5% of patients experienced functional decline, and 11.0% died during a median follow‐up period of 7 months. Delirium resulted in a fourfold increased odds of the combined outcome of functional decline or death. Quality of life was lower in patients that experienced this outcome.
Conclusion
In a cohort of TAVI patients, functional decline or death was a frequent outcome in the first year postprocedure. Postoperative delirium increased the odds for this outcome substantially. This suggests that delirium risk should be an important factor to consider in shared decision‐making for TAVI patients. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; 20: 1202–1207.
Abstract Objective Exaggerated central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory responses to peripheral stressors may be implicated in delirium. This study hypothesised that the IL-1β family is involved in ...delirium, predicting increased levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and decreased IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of elderly patients with acute hip fracture. We also hypothesised that Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) would be increased, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) would be decreased. Methods Participants with acute hip fracture aged > 60 (N = 43) were assessed for delirium before and 3–4 days after surgery. CSF samples were taken at induction of spinal anaesthesia. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used for protein concentrations. Results Prevalent delirium was diagnosed in eight patients and incident delirium in 17 patients. CSF IL-1β was higher in patients with incident delirium compared to never delirium (incident delirium 1.74 pg/ml (1.02–1.74) vs. prevalent 0.84 pg/ml (0.49–1.57) vs. never 0.66 pg/ml (0–1.02), Kruskal–Wallis p = 0.03). CSF:serum IL-1β ratios were higher in delirious than non-delirious patients. CSF IL-1ra was higher in prevalent delirium compared to incident delirium (prevalent delirium 70.75 pg/ml (65.63–73.01) vs. incident 31.06 pg/ml (28.12–35.15) vs. never 33.98 pg/ml (28.71–43.28), Kruskal–Wallis p = 0.04). GFAP was not increased in delirium. IFN-γ and IGF-1 were below the detection limit in CSF. Conclusion This study provides novel evidence of CNS inflammation involving the IL-1β family in delirium and suggests a rise in CSF IL-1β early in delirium pathogenesis. Future larger CSF studies should examine the role of CNS inflammation in delirium and its sequelae.
Physical and pharmacological restraints, defined as all measures limiting a person in his or her freedom, are extensively used to handle unsafe or problematic behavior in hospital care. There are ...increasing concerns as to the extent with which these restraints are being used in hospitals, and whether their benefits outweigh their potential harm. There is currently no comprehensive literature overview on the beneficial and/or adverse effects of the use of physical and pharmacological restraints in the hospital setting.
A systematic review of the existing literature will be performed on the beneficial and/or adverse effects of physical and pharmacological restraints in the hospital setting. Relevant databases will be systematically searched. A dedicated search strategy was composed. A visualization of similarities (VOS) analysis was used to further specify the search. Observational studies, and if available, randomized controlled trials reporting on beneficial and/or adverse effects of physical and/or pharmacological restraints in the general hospital setting will be included. Data from included articles will be extracted and analyzed. If the data is suitable for quantitative analysis, meta-analysis will be applied.
This review will provide data on the beneficial and/or adverse effects of the use of physical and pharmacological restraints in hospital care. With this review we aim to guide health professionals by providing a critique of the available evidence regarding their choice to either apply or withhold from using restraints. A limitation of the current review will be that we will not specifically address ethical aspects of restraint use. Nevertheless, the outcomes of our systematic review can be used in the composition of a multidisciplinary guideline. Furthermore, our systematic review might determine knowledge gaps in the evidence, and recommendations on how to target these gaps with future research.
PROSPERO registration number: CRD42019116186.
Changing population demographics have led to an increasing number of functionally dependent older people who require care and medical treatment. In many countries, government policy aims to shift ...resources into the community from institutional care settings with the expectation that this will reduce costs and improve the quality of care compared.
To assess the effects of long-term home or foster home care versus institutional care for functionally dependent older people.
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) via the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and two trials registers to November 2015.
We included randomised and non-randomised trials, controlled before-after studies and interrupted time series studies complying with the EPOC study design criteria and comparing the effects of long-term home care versus institutional care for functionally dependent older people.
Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of each included study. We reported the results narratively, as the substantial heterogeneity across studies meant that meta-analysis was not appropriate.
We included 10 studies involving 16,377 participants, all of which were conducted in high income countries. Included studies compared community-based care with institutional care (care homes). The sample size ranged from 98 to 11,803 (median N = 204). There was substantial heterogeneity in the healthcare context, interventions studied, and outcomes assessed. One study was a randomised trial (N = 112); other included studies used designs that had potential for bias, particularly due lack of randomisation, baseline imbalances, and non-blinded outcome assessment. Most studies did not select (or exclude) participants for any specific disease state, with the exception of one study that only included patients if they had a stroke. All studies had methodological limitations, so readers should interpret results with caution.It is uncertain whether long-term home care compared to nursing home care decreases mortality risk (2 studies, N = 314, very-low certainty evidence). Estimates ranged from a nearly three-fold increased risk of mortality in the homecare group (risk ratio (RR) 2.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57 to 5.32) to a 62% relative reduction (RR 0.38, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.61). We did not pool data due to the high degree of heterogeneity (I
= 94%).It is uncertain whether the intervention has a beneficial effect on physical function, as the certainty of evidence is very low (5 studies, N = 1295). Two studies reported that participants who received long-term home care had improved activities of daily living compared to those in a nursing home, whereas a third study reported that all participants performed equally on physical function.It is uncertain whether long-term home care improves happiness compared to nursing home care (RR 1.97, 95% CI 1.27 to 3.04) or general satisfaction because the certainty of evidence was very low (2 studies, N = 114).The extent to which long-term home care was associated to more or fewer adverse health outcomes than nursing home care was not reported.It is uncertain whether long-term home care compared to nursing home care decreases the risk of hospital admission (very low-certainty evidence, N = 14,853). RR estimates ranged from 2.75 (95% CI 2.59 to 2.92), showing an increased risk for those receiving care at home, to 0.82 (95% CI 0.72 to 0.93), showing a slightly reduced risk for the same group. We did not pool data due to the high degree of heterogeneity (I
= 99%).
There are insufficient high-quality published data to support any particular model of care for functionally dependent older people. Community-based care was not consistently beneficial across all the included studies; there were some data suggesting that community-based care may be associated with improved quality of life and physical function compared to institutional care. However, community alternatives to institutional care may be associated with increased risk of hospitalisation. Future studies should assess healthcare utilisation, perform economic analysis, and consider caregiver burden.
Purpose
Prehabilitation is increasingly offered to patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) undergoing surgery as it could prevent complications and facilitate recovery. However, implementation of such ...a complex multidisciplinary intervention is challenging. This study aims to explore perspectives of professionals involved in prehabilitation to gain understanding of barriers or facilitators to its implementation and to identify strategies to successful operationalization of prehabilitation.
Methods
In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were performed with healthcare professionals involved in prehabilitation for patients with CRC. Prehabilitation was defined as a preoperative program with the aim of improving physical fitness and nutritional status. Parallel with data collection, open coding was applied to the transcribed interviews. The Ottawa Model of Research Use (OMRU) framework, a comprehensive interdisciplinary model guide to promote implementation of research findings into healthcare practice, was used to categorize obtained codes and structure the barriers and facilitators into relevant themes for change.
Results
Thirteen interviews were conducted. Important barriers were the conflicting scientific evidence on (cost-)effectiveness of prehabilitation, the current inability to offer a personalized prehabilitation program, the complex logistic organization of the program, and the unawareness of (the importance of) a prehabilitation program among healthcare professionals and patients. Relevant facilitators were availability of program coordinators, availability of physician leadership, and involving skeptical colleagues in the implementation process from the start.
Conclusions
Important barriers to prehabilitation implementation are mainly related to the intervention being complex, relatively unknown and only evaluated in a research setting. Therefore, physicians’ leadership is needed to transform care towards more integration of personalized prehabilitation programs.
Implications for cancer survivors
By strengthening prehabilitation programs and evidence of their efficacy using these recommendations, it should be possible to enhance both the pre- and postoperative quality of life for colorectal cancer patients during survivorship.
Purpose
To develop and internally validate prediction models with machine learning for future potentially preventable healthcare utilization in patients with multiple long term conditions (MLTC). ...This study is the first step in investigating whether prediction models can help identify patients with MLTC that are most in need of integrated care.
Methods
A retrospective cohort study was performed with electronic health record data from adults with MLTC from an academic medical center in the Netherlands. Based on demographic and healthcare utilization characteristics in 2017, we predicted ≥ 12 outpatient visits, ≥ 1 emergency department (ED) visits, and ≥ 1 acute hospitalizations in 2018. Four machine learning models (elastic net regression, extreme gradient boosting (XGB), logistic regression, and random forest) were developed, optimized, and evaluated in a hold-out dataset for each outcome.
Results
A total of 14,486 patients with MLTC were included. Based on the area under the curve (AUC) and calibration curves, the XGB model was selected as final model for all three outcomes. The AUC was 0.82 for ≥ 12 outpatient visits, 0.76 for ≥ 1 ED visits and 0.73 for ≥ 1 acute hospitalizations. Despite adequate AUC and calibration, precision-recall curves showed suboptimal performance.
Conclusions
The final selected models per outcome can identify patients with future potentially preventable high healthcare utilization. However, identifying high-risk patients with MLTC and substantiating if they are most in need of integrated care remains challenging. Further research is warranted investigating whether patients with high healthcare utilization are indeed the most in need of integrated care and whether quantitively identified patients match the identification based on clinicians’ experience and judgment.
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