Abstract
Introduction: To evaluate the effectiveness of delirium and dementia care provided by community volunteers for older patients in acute care hospitals.
Methods: Participants were aged 70 years or older. We included those who either had been identified as at risk for delirium based on delirium risk assessment or referred to the psychiatric liaison team for delirium/dementia. Participants were allocated on a ward-by-ward basis to either a volunteer intervention group or a usual care group within a parallel-group, nonrandomized controlled trial design. Confounding factors were adjusted using propensity score inverse probability weighting, with analyses accounting for ward-level clustering.
Results: The analysis included 89 intervention and 113 control subjects. After propensity score adjustment, the incidence of delirium showed no significant difference between the groups (p = 0.31). On the other hand, the delirium remission rate was significantly higher (99% vs. 79%, p < 0.001) and the length of hospital stay was reduced (17.6 days vs. 26.9 days, p < 0.001) in the volunteer intervention group. Furthermore, antipsychotic medications initiated during hospitalization were significantly more likely to be discontinued in the volunteer intervention group (p = 0.03).
Conclusion: Care provided by community volunteers may contribute to promoting recovery among older patients. Such care may have clinical significance in a super-aged society.
