Hospitalization and effects on cognition.

WHY ASK THIS QUESTION? Some people live very long lives and are never seriously ill. More often, however, older people sometimes are sick enough to have to go into the hospital. After being in the hospital, many people’s cognition is never quite the same. Their families and their physicians notice this, and often the patients do themselves. It is most common if they were very confused when they were in the hospital.2 Dr. Wilson and other researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago looked at how often this occurs.1