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

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.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.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%).The SQeeC and SQiD are simple and time efficient screening tools with encouraging psychometric properties