During hospitalization, confusion occurs in 15~20% of older adults and persists in 5~10% of them. This study was designed to investigate effects of a five-day nursing intervention program designed to reduce confusion in hospitalized older adults. Subjects were inpatients over the age of 60 years old and were admitted in a surgical care unit.
Methods
Data were collected from 111 patients. Subjects divided into one of two groups, 58 patients of the control group which received the usual nursing care; and 53 patients of the intervention group which received the usual nursing care plus nursing intervention program for reducing acute confusion. The Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOS) and the Korean Mini-Mental Screening Examination (MMSE-K) were utilized.
Results
1) Acute delirium was significantly reduced in the intervention group compared to the control group (χ2=4.22, p=.034) as well as the duration of the delirious state was significantly shortened (F=56.62, p<.001). Cognitive function of the intervention group was improved (F=21.14, p<.001).
Conclusion
The nursing intervention program reduced the incidence and duration of acute delirium of the elderly inpatients, as well as it helps them keep better cognitive function than the control group.
This study was a partial fulfillment for the requirement of the master of science in nursing for the first author.
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Table 1
General Characteristics of Study Subjects (N=111)
Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.
Table 2
Chi-square Test for the Occurrence of Acute Confusion between Two Groups (N=111)
Exp.=experimental group; Cont.=control group.
Table 3
Odd ratio on the Occurrence of Acute Confusion in the Control Group Compared to Experimental Group by Logistic Regression Analysis (N=111)
Reference: Experimental group.
Table 4
Comparison of the Duration of Acute Confusion between Two Groups (N=111)
Table 5
Comparison of Cognitive Function of the Two Groups by the Repeated Measures ANOVA (N=111)
Figure & Data
References
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
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A Systematic Review of Non-pharmacological Interventions for Delirium Prevention in Elderly Inpatients Sang Bin You, Ju Hee Lee Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing.2021; 28(2): 249. CrossRef
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Non-pharmacological interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients Jennifer K Burton, Louise Craig, Shun Qi Yong, Najma Siddiqi, Elizabeth A Teale, Rebecca Woodhouse, Amanda J Barugh, Alison M Shepherd, Alan Brunton, Suzanne C Freeman, Alex J Sutton, Terry J Quinn Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.2021;[Epub] CrossRef
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