Serum Hypoalbuminemia Is a Long-Term Prognostic Marker in Medical Hospitalized Patients, Irrespective of the Underlying Disease

Abstract

Hypoalbuminemia is common in hypoalbuminemia-associated disorders (HAD), e.g., liver and kidney disease. We hypothesize that hospitalized patients with hypoalbuminemia have poor prognosis irrespective of their underlying disease. Records of patients admitted to Medicine (2010–2018), with and without HAD were analyzed, comparing low (n = 1542) vs. normal albumin (n = 6216) were older, had a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI, 5 vs. 4), longer median hospital stay (5 vs. 4), higher one year re-admission rate (49.9% vs. 39.8%), and one year mortality (48.9% vs. 15.3%, p p < 0.01). Hypoalbuminemia portends poor long-term prognosis in hospitalized patients regardless of the underlying disease and could be added to prognostic predictive models.

Keywords

• albumin
• hypoalbuminemia
• prognosis
• predictive model
• mortality
• hospitalization