SynthesisAge and ageing2020
The consistent burden in published estimates of delirium occurrence in medical inpatients over four decades: a systematic review and meta-analysis study.
Synthesis in Age and ageing, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 130 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
130 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 258 citations in OpenAlex.
- Delirium among older adults living at home: a systematic review of prevalence, incidence, and risk factors.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Pooled it
- Five-decade prevalence of delirium in pneumonia, risk factors and associated mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Pooled it
- Delirium-associated medication in people at risk: A systematic update review, meta-analyses, and GRADE-profiles.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2023Pooled it
- Risk of bias in prognostic models of hospital-induced delirium for medical-surgical units: A systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Low Skeletal Muscle Mass and the Incidence of Delirium in Hospitalized Older Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.International journal of clinical practice · 2023Pooled it
- Non-pharmacological interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Non-pharmacological interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Diagnostic accuracy of the 4AT for delirium detection in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- [Treatment of delirium with psychotropic drugs-update 2026].Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2026Review
- Delirium Prevention in Acute Care Telemetry: An Evidence-Based Practice Project.Worldviews on evidence-based nursing · 2026Article
- Parenteral hydration and the cognitively impaired: the important role of subcutaneous hydration.European geriatric medicine · 2026Review
- Early recognition of delirium in hospitalized patients: an underutilized clinical priority.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Depiction of Delirium in Contemporary Medical Television Dramas: A Descriptive Content Analysis.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Observational
- Identifying delirium in older adults presenting to a primary care out-of-hours (OOH) service: a retrospective cohort study.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Delirium and incident nursing home admission among people with and without dementia.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Glymphatic dysfunction: a unifying hypothesis for delirium.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2026Review
- Clinical Outcomes and Mortality Following Delirium: A Five-Year Follow-Up Study on Hospitalized Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
70 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionDelirium is associated with a wide range of adverse patient safety outcomes, yet it remains consistently under-diagnosed. We undertook a systematic review of studies describing delirium in adult medical patients in secondary care. We investigated if changes in healthcare complexity were associated with trends in reported delirium over the last four decades.
methodsWe used identical criteria to a previous systematic review, only including studies using internationally accepted diagnostic criteria for delirium (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases). Estimates were pooled across studies using random effects meta-analysis, and we estimated temporal changes using meta-regression. We investigated publication bias with funnel plots.
resultsWe identified 15 further studies to add to 18 studies from the original review. Overall delirium occurrence was 23% (95% CI 19-26%) (33 studies) though this varied according to diagnostic criteria used (highest in DSM-IV, lowest in DSM-5). There was no change from 1980 to 2019, nor was case-mix (average age of sample, proportion with dementia) different. Overall, risk of bias was moderate or low, though there was evidence of increasing publication bias over time. DISCUSSION: The incidence and prevalence of delirium in hospitals appears to be stable, though publication bias may have masked true changes. Nonetheless, delirium remains a challenging and urgent priority for clinical diagnosis and care pathways.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.