Delirium is the most frequent complication among the hospitalized elderly with hip fracture. Although, delirium is associated with longer hospital stay, higher mortality rates, worse functional outcomes, and higher institutionalization rates yet health service planners have hugely ignored its existence. This review aims to identify the effectiveness of multicomponent interventions to prevent delirium in hospitalized elderly patients with hip fracture.

This review includes experimental, non-experimental, and observational studies. Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, and Web of science.

After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, nine full text articles were included in the review. The studies reported the following effect on delirium: We pooled data regarding incidence of delirium from the three RCTs. The effect was in favor of the intervention group (odds ratio 0.64, 95% CI 0.46–0.87). All three RCTs reported that duration of delirium was shorter in the intervention group than in the usual care group (mean 2.9 vs. 3.1 days, median 3 vs. 4 days, median 5.0 vs. 10.2 days). Four other studies reported on the duration of delirium with Milisen and colleagues reported shorter duration of delirium within the intervention group. Four studies reported on severity of delirium with two research groups reporting significant results.

Early engagement of multidisciplinary staff who addresses the risk factors of delirium as soon as the patient presents to the acute care environment is the key element of a successful delirium prevention program. Once delirium had developed, the multicomponent interventions did not appear to make a difference to the duration or severity of delirium.