{"doi":"10.1093/ageing/afae168","title":"Incidence of post-operative delirium increases as severity of frailty increases","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: The surgical population is ageing and often frail. Frailty increases the risk for poor post-operative outcomes such as delirium, which carries significant morbidity, mortality and cost. Frailty is often measured in a binary manner, limiting pre-operative counselling. The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between categorical frailty severity level and post-operative delirium. METHODS: We performed an analysis of a retrospective cohort of older adults from 12 January 2018 to 3 January 2020 admitted to a tertiary medical center for elective surgery. All participants underwent frailty screening prior to inpatient elective surgery with at least two post-operative delirium assessments. Planned ICU admissions were excluded. Procedures were risk-stratified by the Operative Stress Score (OSS). Categorical frailty severity level (Not Frail, Mild, Moderate, and Severe Frailty) was measured using the Edmonton Frail Scale. Delirium was determined using the 4 A's Test and Confusion Assessment Method-Intensive Care Unit. RESULTS: In sum, 324 patients were included. The overall post-operative delirium incidence was 4.6% (15 individuals), which increased significantly as the categorical frailty severity level increased (2% not frail, 6% mild frailty, 23% moderate frailty; P < 0.001) corresponding to increasing odds of delirium (OR 2.57 [0.62, 10.66] mild vs. not frail; OR 12.10 [3.57, 40.99] moderate vs. not frail). CONCLUSIONS: Incidence of post-operative delirium increases as categorical frailty severity level increases. This suggests that frailty severity should be considered when counselling older adults about their risk for post-operative delirium prior to surgery.","journal":"Age and Ageing","year":2024,"id":445310,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.91,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":264350,"name":"Esther S. Oh","orcid":"0000-0002-9638-5763","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":363219,"name":"Kevin J. Psoter","orcid":"0000-0001-8529-0585","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1261748,"name":"Dianne Bettick","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287908,"name":"Nae‐Yuh Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-6513-9730","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":920478,"name":"Susan L. Gearhart","orcid":"0000-0002-0915-2188","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":959579,"name":"Frederick E. Sieber","orcid":"0000-0002-9121-4607","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1261254,"name":"April L. Ehrlich","orcid":"0000-0003-0325-0235","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":27,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:01:42.089235Z","pmid":"39148434","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}