ReviewJournal of anesthesia and translational medicine2026
Prevalence of cognitive impairment in older medical inpatients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Journal of anesthesia and translational medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Cognitive impairment is common among older adults and is associated with adverse outcomes such as prolonged hospital stays and increased mortality. Many of the medical inpatients subsequently undergo surgical procedures, where cognitive impairment is known to influence perioperative risk, anesthetic management, and postoperative outcomes. No meta-analysis has comprehensively synthesized global data specific to cognitive impairment among medically hospitalized patients. We aimed to determine the global prevalence of cognitive impairment in older medical inpatients and explore variations by assessment method and region. Methods: We searched MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, Cochrane Central, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and PsycINFO for relevant articles. We included patients ≥ 60 years old admitted to hospitals and studies examining prevalence of cognitive impairment. Excluded were elective surgical patients and non-hospital settings. Cognition was assessed by validated cognitive assessment tools, diagnostic instruments, or prior diagnosis. The primary outcome was the pooled prevalence of cognitive impairment in older patients admitted to hospitals. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on cognitive assessment tools, geographic regions, study type, and sample size. Results: Fifty-six studies (n = 62,853) were included. Mean age was 79.8 ± 7.7 years with 56% female. Meta-analysis revealed substantial variability across studies, with pooled prevalence estimates demonstrating high heterogeneity. The prevalence of newly suspected cognitive impairment/dementia using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and/or validated screening tools was 38% (95% CI: 33%-42%). The prevalence of pre-diagnosed cognitive impairment/dementia documented from medical records was 24% (95% CI: 19%-29%). The prevalence of dementia was higher in Western countries than Eastern countries [41% (95% CI: 32%-50%) vs 27% (95% CI: 21%-33%)]. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment is prevalent among older medical inpatients. The variability in prevalence was dependent on assessment method and geographic region. Given the substantial heterogeneity and low to very low certainty of the evidence available, these prevalence estimates should be interpreted with caution.
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.