Reliability and Validity of Hindi Version of the Confusion Assessment Method for Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) for Diagnosis of Delirium: A Cohort Study.

Background: The confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit (CAM-ICU) is a bedside tool to diagnose delirium in critically ill patients. This study aims to determine the reliability and validity of the Hindi version of CAM-ICU against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), fourth edition text revision (DSM-IV-TR), and DSM, fifth edition (DSM-5) criteria for diagnosis of delirium.

Methods: Seventy-five Hindi-speaking consenting patients ≥18-year-old with Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale ≥-3 and an anticipated ICU stay > 48 hours were included. Patients with known severe mental illnesses, visual/hearing loss, neurological injury, burns, drug overdose, and Glasgow Coma Scale <9 at the time of screening were excluded. After 48 hours of ICU stay and ensuring at least 2 hours of sedative interruption, within a 4-hour period, two examiners independently assessed delirium using the Hindi version of the scale and an experienced psychiatrist assessed the patients independently and applied the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing delirium. Time taken for CAM-ICU assessment, inter-observer reliability, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated.

Results: The Cohen's κ value was 0.944 (p < 0.001). The Cronbach's α for observer 1 and observer 2 was 0.961 and 0.968, respectively. The sensitivity and negative predictive value of the tool was 100% with both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5. The specificity was 90.2% and 92% and the positive predictive value was 82.8 and 86.2% with DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5, respectively.

Conclusions: The Hindi version of CAM-ICU is a reliable and valid tool for the diagnosis of delirium in an ICU setting.

Trial registration: The study was registered with the Clinical Trials Registry, India (CTRI) as per the research guidelines laid down by the Indian Council of Medical Research before enrolling the participants. (CTRI number- CTRI/2021/01/030471). The registration date was 14th January 2021. URL of registry is http://ctri.nic.in.

Highlights: Delirium in the ICU is often undiagnosed due to unfamiliarity, lack of understanding of symptoms, non-availability of psychiatric consultation, and validated diagnostic tools in the native language of the patient. This study aims to find the reliability and validity of the Hindi version of CAM-ICU.

How to cite this article: Salhotra R, Bose A, Srivastava S, Mohta M, Pandarinathan K, Rautela RS. Reliability and Validity of Hindi Version of the Confusion Assessment Method for Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) for Diagnosis of Delirium: A Cohort Study. Indian J Crit Care Med 2024;28(10):958-962.