Older patients hospitalized for acute care or a critical illness are more likely to experience cognitive decline compared to older adults who are not hospitalized, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.
A large proportion of patients who are hospitalized for acute care or care of a critical illness are older adults. Some studies have suggested that many survivors of critical illness experience long-term cognitive impairment, but these studies did not measure cognitive function before a critical illness, according to background information in the article.
William J. Ehlenbach, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues analyzed data from a study that was conducting cognitive testing on older adults, and examined administrative data from hospitalizations to determine whether hospitalizations for acute illness or critical illness were associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The study included data from 1994 through 2007 on 2,929 individuals, 65 years old and older without dementia at the beginning of the study. Cognition was measured with the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) every 2 years at follow-up visits, and those with scores below a certain point underwent a clinical examination for dementia.
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