Association of Delirium with Long‐term Cognitive Decline: An Update

Delirium has been associated with a variety of unfavorable outcomes, including increasing length of stay in the hospital, poor functioning, and death. We compiled the literature and conducted a meta‐analysis (Goldberg et al, JAMA Neurol, 2021) in order to determine if delirium was also associated with long term cognitive decline. Twenty‐three studies that included over 3500 delirium and 6900 control patients were included in the meta‐analysis. Cognitive assessments were conducted on average at 2.3 years after the episode of delirium. We found that the overall effect size G was .45 (P<.001) indicating that patients who experienced delirium performed significantly worse than controls who did not experience delirium.