Patient characteristics (n=99)
| Patient characteristics | Whole group (n=99) | Patients without diagnosis of delirium (n=76) | Patients with delirium (n=23) | P value |
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 79.2 (7.9) | 77.7 (0.8) | 84.0 (1.7) | <0.001 |
| Female sex, n (%) | 50 (51.5) | 40 (52.6) | 10 (43.5) | 0.48 |
| ISS, median (IQR) | 9 (4–14) | 9 (4–14) | 9 (4.5–10) | 0.93 |
| Primary injury, n (%) | ||||
| Rib fracture | 29 (29) | 22 (29) | 7 (30) | 0.68 |
| Other fracture | 22 (22) | 16 (21) | 6 (26) | |
| Head injury | 21 (21) | 16 (21) | 5 (22) | |
| Other traumatic injury | 18 (18) | 16 (21) | 2 (9) | |
| No injury* | 9 (9) | 6 (8) | 3 (13) | |
| From RACF (nursing home), n (%) | 14 (14) | 9 (12) | 5 (22) | 0.30 |
| Baseline frailty | ||||
| CFS, median (IQR) | 4 (3–6) | 3 (3–5) | 6 (5–6) | <0.001 |
| Proportion frail†, n (%) | 44 (45) | 25 (33) | 19 (83) | <0.001 |
| History of dementia‡ | 16 (16) | 5 (7) | 11 (48) | <0.001 |
| Outcomes | ||||
| LOS | ||||
| Median (IQR) | 6 (2–16) | 4 (1–10.5) | 17 (6–27) | <0.001 |
| Long LOS§, n (%) | 25 (25.25) | 13 (17.1) | 12 (52.2) | 0.001 |
| Selected complications, n (%) | ||||
| Any complication | 29 (29) | 19 (25) | 10 (44) | 0.09 |
| Cardiovascular | 16 (16) | 10 (13) | 6 (26) | 0.14 |
| Respiratory | 9 (9) | 5 (7) | 4 (17) | 0.11 |
| Venous thromboembolism | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1.0 |
| Pressure injury | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1.0 |
| Deconditioning | 5 (5) | 2 (3) | 3 (13) | 0.08 |
| In-hospital death | 9 (9) | 6 (8) | 3 (13) | 0.43 |
*These patients presented with suspected traumatic injury, for example, due to the mechanism of (potential) injury, or fall with loss of consciousness or similar, but were subsequently determined to have an ISS score of 0.
†Frail defined as CFS ≥5.
‡Among the 16 patients identified as having a history of dementia, the subtype was unspecified in 9/16, Alzheimer’s in 2/16, vascular in 3/16 and one patient had mixed dementia.
§Long LOS defined as highest quartile, ≥16 days.
CFS, Clinical Frailty Score; ISS, Injury Severity Score; LOS, loss of consciousness; RACF, residential aged care facility.