Caregivers Can Help Assess Whether Older Adults Are Dealing With Delirium

More than 20 percent of older adults may experience delirium, according to EurekaAlert . In a new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , researchers set out to learn whether caregivers could use existing questionnaires and other tools to detect delirium on their own. The researchers reviewed 6,056 scientific papers about delirium screening, identifying six tools that caregivers could use. Each one took just several minutes or less to use and had 11 items or fewer to complete. Three tools could be completed by the caregiver alone.