The economic cost of delirium: A systematic review and quality assessment

Abstract

Introduction This review aims to systematically identify and appraise the methodological quality of claims on the cost of delirium; and discuss challenges and opportunities for improvements in the precision of the estimates. Methods Searches of scientific papers and gray literature were performed up until June 2020. The Larg and Moss checklist was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Results After deduplication, the search identified 317 potentially relevant articles, of which 17 articles were eligible for inclusion. After adjusting for inflation and common currency, the cost of delirium ranged between $806 and $24,509 (in 2019 US$). Discussion This review found significant variation among the cost estimates and methodological quality. There has been limited focus on dementia as a sequela of delirium in terms of economic implications, but recent evidence suggests cost implications of delirium may be 52% higher when dementia is considered.