To evaluate the risk factors of preoperative malnutrition in the elderly hip fracture patients.

From January 2011 to December 2015, 798 elderly patients (≥65 years) admitted in Zhongda Hospital were included in a retrospective analysis. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the risk factors of preoperative malnutrition in the elderly hip fracture patients.

The elderly hip fracture patients had poor nutritional status before operation, with malnutrition accounting for about 34.80-78.43%. The nutritional status of the patients with intertrochanteric fracture were worse than those with femoral neck fracture, with the significant differences of the hemoglobin [(108±18)g/L, (123±16) g/L, t=11.617, P<0.001] and albumin [(34±6)g/L, (36±5)g/L, t=5.133, P<0.001] levels between theses fracture types. The advanced aged patients had worse nutritional status than general old patients. The levels of hemoglobin [(112±18)g/L, (121±18)g/L, t=6.772, P<0.001], total lymphocyte count [(1.1±0.7)cells/ml, (1.3±0.6) cells/ml, t=3.247, P=0.001] and albumin [(34±5)g/L, (36±6)g/L, t=4.577, P<0.001] in the general old patients were lower than those in the advanced aged patients with statistical significance. The multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR: 0.567, 95% CI: 0.419-0.768, P<0.001) and cerebral infarction (OR: 0.699, 95% CI: 0.500-0.980, P=0.037) were the major risk factors of preoperative malnutrition.

The elderly hip fracture patients had poor nutritional status before operation, especially the intertrochanteric fracture patients and the aged patients. Age and cerebral infarction were the major risk factors of preoperative malnutrition in the elderly hip fracture patients.