Comparing performance on the Months of the Year Backwards test in hospitalised patients with delirium, dementia, and no cognitive impairment: an exploratory study

Key summary points Aim To investigate performance of the Months of the Year Backwards (MOTYB) test in older hospitalised patients with delirium, dementia, and no cognitive impairment. Findings Half of the patients with delirium (46%) could not engage with MOTYB compared to only 11% of patients with dementia without delirium. In patients able to give responses, those with delirium or dementia performed significantly worse than those without cognitive impairment. Message Our findings show the potential value of analysing response patterns, especially initial engagement, self-correction, and ability to continue to do the task in addition to considering exclusively the capacity to correctly recite the months until July, June or January. Purpose To investigate performance of the Months of the Year Backwards (MOTYB) test in older hospitalised patients with delirium, dementia, and no cognitive impairment. Methods Secondary analysis of data from a case–control study of 149 hospitalised patients aged ≥ 65 years with delirium [with or without dementia ( N = 50)], dementia [without delirium ( N = 46)], and no cognitive impairment ( N = 53). Verbatim transcripts of MOTYB audio recordings were analysed to determine group differences in response patterns. Results In the total sample [median age 85y (IQR 80–88), 82% female], patients with delirium were more often unable to recite months backward to November (36/50 = 72%) than patients with dementia (21/46 = 46%; p