One-Year Health Care Costs Associated With Delirium in the Elderly Population

While delirium has been increasingly recognized as a serious and potentially preventable condition, its long-term implications are not well understood. This study determined the total 1-year health care costs associated with delirium.

Hospitalized patients aged 70 years and older who participated in a previous controlled clinical trial of a delirium prevention intervention at an academic medical center between 1995 and 1998 were followed up for 1 year after discharge. Total inflation-adjusted health care costs, calculated as either reimbursed amounts or hospital charges converted to costs, were computed by means of data from Medicare administrative files, hospital billing records, and the Connecticut Long-term Care Registry. Regression models were used to determine costs associated with delirium after adjusting for patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.