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Research Article: Prognostic nutritional index at admission predicts 90-day mortality in patients aged ?80?years with hip fracture: a system-level readout of the nutrition–immune milieu relevant to microenvironment-responsive bone repair

Date Published: 2026-04-17

Abstract:
Hip fractures in super-elderly patients are associated with high short-term mortality. The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is a simple marker reflecting both nutritional and immune status, but its prognostic value in super-elderly hip fracture patients remains unclear. We retrospectively included 614 patients aged ?80?years with traumatic hip fractures from a tertiary hospital ( n =?457) and the MIMIC-IV database ( n =?157). PNI was calculated from serum albumin and absolute lymphocyte count measured within 24?h of admission. The optimal PNI cut-off for predicting 90-day all-cause mortality was determined using X-tile and used to define low- and high-PNI groups. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, Cox proportional hazards models, and propensity score matching (PSM) were applied to evaluate the association between admission PNI and 90-day mortality. The optimal PNI cut-off was 37.2, yielding 231 patients (37.6%) in the low-PNI group (PNI???37.2) and 383 (62.4%) in the high-PNI group (PNI?>?37.2). Before PSM, patients with low PNI were older and had worse laboratory profiles, including lower hemoglobin, albumin, and lymphocyte counts. The 90-day mortality rate was significantly higher in the low-PNI than in the high-PNI group (21.65% vs. 9.40%, p <?0.001). LASSO identified sex, race, chronic pulmonary disease, hemoglobin, creatinine, and PNI as variables associated with 90-day mortality. After 1:2 PSM, 398 patients were retained with most baseline imbalances effectively reduced. In robust Cox proportional hazards analyses for the matched cohort, high PNI was associated with lower 90-day mortality in univariate models (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.18–0.63; p <?0.001); Race violated the proportional hazards assumption; this association remained robust in the fully adjusted robust Cox model with race treated as a stratified variable (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.19–0.63; p <?0.001). A low admission PNI (?37.2) is strongly and independently associated with higher 90-day mortality in super-elderly patients with hip fractures. PNI, derived from routine laboratory tests within 24?h of admission, provides a simple and inexpensive tool for early risk stratification in this vulnerable population.

Introduction:
Hip fractures in super-elderly patients are associated with high short-term mortality. The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is a simple marker reflecting both nutritional and immune status, but its prognostic value in super-elderly hip fracture patients remains unclear.

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