Background: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a considerable complication of surgery, especially in elderly patients, and preventive measures are best targeted at high-risk populations. Clinical risk stratification tools are not routinely used in the preoperative setting, as their implication in anesthesiologic practice is time- and resource-intensive. We developed a self-administered screening tool to evaluate the individual risk for POD using a tablet computer application. The present study was aimed to provide normative data for this application.
Design: Prospective cohort study.
Setting: University hospital.
Participants: Healthy nonsurgical volunteers aged ≥65 years.
Methods: After providing written informed consent and completing a medical questionnaire, each participant was assessed by the tablet computer application, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (CERAD-NAB). Primary outcome was the performance in the studied tablet computer application. The application comprises 15 question items and 7 cognitive tasks. Regression models were built for each endpoint with the covariates age, gender, and education. Demographically-corrected standard scores were computed for each endpoint.
Results: Three hundred and thirty-four participants were included in the study from December 2016 to April 2017; 283 subjects were included in the final analysis. Mean participant age was 73.8 ± 5.2 years (range: 65–91 years), gender ratio was 128/155 (male/female), and the average level of education was 13.6 ± 2.9 years (range: 7–20 years). Mean MMSE score was 29.2 ± 0.9 points, mean GDS score was 0.4 ± 0.7 points, and the mean CERAD-NAB total score was 98.7 ± 5.7 points. The average time necessary to complete the test application was 22 minutes.
Conclusions: Our study provides normative data for the tablet computer application designed to preoperatively evaluate the individual risk for POD. Subsequently, the tool will be validated for use in clinical practice.

01 / Preoperative cognitive assessment: development of a self-administered screening tool and normative data for an elderly population