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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Aging Psychiatry
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1387615

How much risk does delirium represent for the development of dementia?: Retrospective cohort study from over 260,000 patients record in a solitary institution

Provisionally accepted
  • Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Takatsuki, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Delirium frequently affects the consciousness of the elderly, particularly those in hospitals. Evidence increasingly associates linking delirium history to an increased risk of dementia. However, most studies are limited in scope, focusing mainly on postoperative or intensive care units with small patient samples, which affects the broader applicability of their findings. We aim to elucidate the precise incidence of delirium and the subsequent onset of dementia within whole inpatients. Additionally, we aimed to explore the correlation between the emergence of delirium during hospitalization and the subsequent manifestation of dementia. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis employing a decade-long electronic medical record dataset consisted of 261,123 patients in Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital. Key analyses were performed October 2022 to January 2023. The primary outcome, dementia onset, was determined by prescriptions for the anti-dementia drugs donepezil, galantamine, memantine, or rivastigmine, which are approved for use in Japan 10,781 patients met the inclusion criteria. The median interval between the onset of dementia was 972.5 days for individuals without a history of delirium, whereas for those with a history of delirium, it was notably shorter at 592.5 days. This disparity culminated in a hazard ratio of 5.29 (95% confidence interval: 1.35-20.75) for subsequent dementia onset. This investigation underscores the imperative significance of directing attention towards preventive measures against delirium during hospitalization, alongside the necessity of diligent monitoring and intervention for cognitive decline in patients who encounter delirium.

    Keywords: Delirium, Dementia, cognitive decline, Retrospective cohort study, Subsequent dementia onset

    Received: 18 Feb 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Minami, Toyoda, Hata, Nishihara, Neo, Nishida and Kanazawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tetsufumi Kanazawa, Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Takatsuki, Japan

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