Screening in delirium: A pilot study of two screening tools, the Simple Query for Easy Evaluation of Consciousness and Simple Question in Delirium

AIM: Delirium is poorly recognised and inadequately treated in medical settings. This research aimed to determine the psychometric properties of a newly developed tool, SQeeC against another emergent instrument, SQiD, in the screening of delirium. METHODS: The SQeeC was administered to 100 patients and SQiD administered to their informants in the general medical wards of a General Hospital. Data were compared with the reference standard geriatric consultant assessment of delirium. RESULTS: Compared with the reference standard, the SQeeC was found to have a sensitivity of 83% (95% CI 52-98%) and a specificity of 81% (95% CI 72-89%) with a negative predictive value of 97% (95% CI 90-100%) while the SQiD was found to have a sensitivity of 77% (95% CI 56-91%), a specificity of 51% (95% CI 37-64%) and a negative predictive value of 83% (95% CI 66-93%). CONCLUSION: The SQeeC and SQiD are simple and time efficient screening tools with encouraging psychometric properties.