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Preliminary development of an ultrabrief two-item bedside test for delirium.

ABSTRACT: Delirium is common, morbid, and costly, yet is greatly under-recognized among hospitalized older adults.To identify the best single and pair of mental status test items that predict the presence of delirium.Diagnostic test evaluation study that enrolled medicine inpatients aged 75 years or older at an academic medical center.Patients underwent a clinical reference standard assessment involving a patient interview, medical record review, and interviews with family members and nurses to determine the presence or absence of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition defined delirium. Participants also underwent the three-dimensional Confusion Assessment Method (3D-CAM), a brief, validated assessment for delirium. Individual items and pairs of items from the 3D-CAM were evaluated to determine sensitivity and specificity relative to the reference standard delirium diagnosis.Of the 201 participants (mean age 84 years, 62% female), 42 (21%) had delirium based on the clinical reference standard. The single item with the best test characteristics was "months of the year backwards" with a sensitivity of 83% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 69%-93%) and specificity of 69% (95% CI: 61%-76%). The best 2-item screen was the combination of "months of the year backwards" and "what is the day of the week?" with a sensitivity of 93% (95% CI: 81%-99%) and specificity of 64% (95% CI: 56%-70%).We identified a single item with >80% and pair of items with >90% sensitivity for delirium. If validated prospectively, these items will serve as an initial innovative screening step for delirium identification in hospitalized older adults.

SUBMITTER: Fick DM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4665114 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Preliminary development of an ultrabrief two-item bedside test for delirium.

Fick Donna M DM Inouye Sharon K SK Guess Jamey J Ngo Long H LH Jones Richard N RN Saczynski Jane S JS Marcantonio Edward R ER

Journal of hospital medicine 20150915 10

<h4>Background</h4>Delirium is common, morbid, and costly, yet is greatly under-recognized among hospitalized older adults.<h4>Objective</h4>To identify the best single and pair of mental status test items that predict the presence of delirium.<h4>Design, setting</h4>Diagnostic test evaluation study that enrolled medicine inpatients aged 75 years or older at an academic medical center.<h4>Methods</h4>Patients underwent a clinical reference standard assessment involving a patient interview, medic ...[more]

PMID: 26369992

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Project description:Background To ascertain if undergraduate medical students attain adequate knowledge to practice in paediatrics, we designed the minimum accepted competency (MAC) examination. This was a set of MCQ’s designed to test the most basic, ‘must know’ knowledge as determined by non-faculty paediatric clinicians. Only two-thirds of undergraduate students passed this exam, despite 96% of the same cohort passing their official university paediatric examination. We aim to describe the psychometric properties of the MAC examination to explore why there was a difference in student performance between these two assessments which should, in theory, be testing the same subject area. We will also investigate if the MAC examination is a potentially reliable method of assessing undergraduate knowledge. Methods The MAC examination was sat by three groups of undergraduate medical students and paediatric trainee doctors. Test item analysis was performed using facility index, discrimination index and Cronbach’s alpha. Results Test item difficulty on the MAC between each group was positively correlated. Correlation of item difficulty with the standard set for each item showed a statistically significant positive relationship. However, for 10 of the items, the mean score achieved by the candidates did not even reach two standard deviations below the standard set by the faculty. Medical students outperformed the trainee doctors on three items. 18 of 30 items achieved a discrimination index > 0.2. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.22–0.59. Conclusion Despite faculty correctly judging that this would be a difficult paper for the candidates, there were a significant number of items on which students performed particularly badly. It is possible that the clinical emphasis in these non-faculty derived questions was juxtaposed with the factual recall often required for university examinations. The MAC examination highlights the difference in the level of knowledge expected of a junior doctor starting work in paediatrics between faculty and non-faculty clinicians and can identify gaps between the current curriculum and the ‘hidden curriculum’ required for real world clinical practice. The faculty comprises physicians in employment by the University whose role it is to design the paediatric curriculum and deliver teaching to undergraduate students. Non-faculty clinicians are paediatric physicians who work soley as clinicians with no affiliation to an educational institution. The concept of a MAC examination to test basic medical knowledge is feasible and the study presented is an encouraging first step towards this method of assessment. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03475-8.

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Preliminary development of an ultrabrief two-item bedside test for delirium.

Publications

Preliminary development of an ultrabrief two-item bedside test for delirium.

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