To investigate the nutritional status of elderly inpatients with benign orthopedic diseases and to assess its relationship with clinical outcomes.

Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) was used to prospectively investigate undernutrition and nutritional risk in elderly patients hospitalized between April 1 and May 31, 2012 in Beijing Hospital for benign orthopedic diseases. Associations between nutritional status and clinical outcomes were analyzed.

A total of 520 patients were included, with a mean age of (75±7.09)years. The mean body mass index (BMI) was (23.20±3.83)kg/m^2, mean dominant-hand grip strength was (16.87±19.19)kg, mean mid-upper arm circumference was (25.62±3.81)cm, mean calf circumference was (31.92±4.02)cm. Compared with patients aged 65-79 years, patients ≥ 80 years showed significantly lower hand grip strength [(13.58±15.92)kg vs.(18.48±20.42)kg, P=0.004]. All the patients completed NRS 2002, which showed that 9.31% of the patients had undernutrition (BMI≤18.5 kg/m²), and 45.19% had nutritional risk (NRS 2002 score≥3). Compared with patients aged 65-79 years, patients ≥ 80 years had significantly higher incidence of undernutrition (13.97% vs. 7.21%, P=0.024) and nutritional risk (52.38% vs. 41.76%, P=0.024), higher incidence of infectious complications in patients with nutritional risk (10.21% vs. 5.26%, P=0.044), longer hospital stay [(11.66±5.76)days vs. (10.42±4.37)days, P=0.016], and higher hospital expense[(20.28±1.811) thousand yuan vs. (16.39±1.362) thousand yuan, P=0.016].

Elderly patients hospitalized for benign orthopedic diseases have a high incidence of undernutrition and nutritional risk, which is associated with worse clinical outcomes.

Elderly patients; Benign orthopedic disease; Undernutrition; Nutritional Risk Screening 2002; Clinical outcomes