Abstract
Background
Cognitive dysfunction due to delirium or dementia is a common finding in acutely ill geriatric patients, but often remains undetected. A brief and sensitive clinical identification method could prevent errors or complications while evaluating the mental status of elderly patients.
Aims
To evaluate the usefulness and clinical implications of the revised simplified short-term memory recall test (STMT-R) in geriatric patients admitted in the emergency department; with age, gender, dementia history, serum albumin, underlying diseases and clinical outcome used as comparative factors.
Methods
Mini–mental state examination and STMT-R scores were initially compared and a positive correlation was observed (r = 0.66, p < 0.001). Subsequently, 885 inpatients aged over 50 years underwent STMT-R evaluation between October 2014 and September 2015. We considered as cognitive dysfunction STMT-R scores ≤ 4 of a maximum score of 8.
Results
Among enrolled patients, 52.2% were female and the mean age was 78.9 years. There were 159 patients who were unable to complete the test (incomplete testing group). We observed cognitive dysfunction in 460 patients, while 266 did not have cognitive dysfunction. There were significant differences between those with and without cognitive dysfunction in terms of age, dementia history, underlying respiratory diseases, and hospital outcome.
Conclusion
Cognitive dysfunction at admission can have a negative effect on the hospital outcomes of elderly patients. Age, a history of dementia and underlying respiratory diseases may also influence cognitive functional decline.
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The study design and all procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of Yamamoto Memorial Hospital and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Yamamoto, H., Ogawa, K., Huaman Battifora, H. et al. Assessment and clinical implications of cognitive impairment in acutely ill geriatric patients using a revised simplified short-term memory recall test (STMT-R). Aging Clin Exp Res 31, 345–351 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-018-0969-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-018-0969-y