Evidence and practice

Identifying the relationship between delirium and falls

Vicki Leah Nurse lecturer, University of East London, London, England

Lillian Ngwu Nurse lecturer, University of East London, London, England

Why you should read this article:

• To understand the relationship between delirium and falls
• To enhance your knowledge of the signs and symptoms of delirium
• To learn about some of the validated delirium screening tools that can be incorporated into a multifactorial falls risk assessment

Delirium, which may present as acute fluctuation in arousal and attention and changes in a person’s behaviours, can increase the risk of falls, while a fall can increase the risk of developing delirium. There is, therefore, a fundamental relationship between delirium and falls. This article describes the main types of delirium and the challenges associated with recognition of the condition and discusses the relationship between delirium and falls. The article also describes some of the validated tools used to screen patients for delirium and includes two brief case studies to illustrate this in practice.

Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2023.e1418

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@leahvix

Correspondence

v.leah@uel.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Leah V, Ngwu L (2023) Identifying the relationship between delirium and falls. Nursing Older People. doi: 10.7748/nop.2023.e1418

Published online: 22 February 2023

Keywords :

cognitive impairment - delirium - falls - mental health - older people - patients - patient assessment - professional