This research matters to older adults who are planning for surgery. Many people worry about how their mental state before an operation might affect their recovery. This study looked at whether feelings like depression, anxiety, or stress before surgery could lead to problems with thinking or memory afterward. These problems are often called postoperative delirium or postoperative neurocognitive disorder. They can make it hard for patients to recover at home or return to normal life.
The researchers combined data from many studies to get a clearer picture. They looked at a total of 6,714 older adults who were 60 years of age or older. The group included people with various psychological factors before their operations. The team analyzed how these preoperative factors connected to cognitive outcomes after the surgery. They used special statistical methods to ensure the results were reliable across different medical settings.
The main finding showed a clear link between psychological factors and cognitive outcomes. The evidence of an association between these factors and postoperative cognitive outcomes was strong. The statistical analysis showed a P value less than 0.001, which means the connection is unlikely to be due to chance. However, the link between depression specifically and postoperative delirium was not significant. The odds ratio for depression was 1.08 with a confidence interval from 0.97 to 1.20. This suggests that depression alone may not be a strong predictor of delirium in this specific analysis.
Safety was not a major focus of this review because the study looked at psychological factors rather than drugs or devices. There were no adverse events or discontinuations to report because no treatment was given. The study focused on identifying risks rather than testing new interventions. This means the results describe existing risks rather than testing new ways to treat them.
Important caveats exist because the evidence for anxiety, personality traits, and stress is limited. The study calls for multidimensional, standardised cognitive assessments to better understand these issues. People should not overreact to this single study because it combines many smaller studies with different methods. The associations found do not prove that one thing caused another. Future studies should evaluate interventions to reduce risk and improve postoperative cognitive outcomes. This research highlights the need for better tools to measure thinking skills after surgery.