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Scientific article
English

Serum albumin level on admission as a predictor of death, length of stay, and readmission

Contributors

Herrmann, François; Safran, C.; Levkoff, S. E.; Minaker, K. L.

Published in

Archives of internal medicine, vol. 152, no. 1, p. 125-130

Publication date

1992

Abstract

We studied the serum albumin level within 48 hours of hospitalization for acute illness to predict in-hospital death, length of stay, and readmission in 15,511 patients older than 40 years. Patients with low serum albumin levels (less than 34 g/L), who made up 21% of the population, were more likely to die, had longer hospital stays, and were readmitted sooner and more frequently than patients with normal albumin levels. The in-hospital mortality was 14% among patients with low albumin levels, as compared with 4% among patients with normal levels. Although the serum albumin level was a nonspecific marker, it was a stronger predictor of death, length of stay, and readmission than age. We conclude that the serum albumin level on admission is an important variable that should be incorporated in severity-of-illness measures based on physiologic indexes.

Keywords

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Biological Markers/chemistry
  • Boston/epidemiology
  • Female
  • Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over
  • *Hospital Mortality
  • Human
  • Length of Stay/*statistics & numerical data
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • *Patient Readmission
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Regression Analysis
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Serum Albumin/*analysis
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

UNIGE affiliation entities

Citation (ISO format)

HERRMANN, François et al. Serum albumin level on admission as a predictor of death, length of stay, and readmission. In: Archives of internal medicine, 1992, vol. 152, n° 1, p. 125–130.

Main files (1)

Article

Identifiers

Additional URL for this publication

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/152/1/125

Journal ISSN

0003-9926
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1downloads

Technical informations

Creation

28/05/2013 15:43:10

First validation

28/05/2013 15:43:10

Update

14/03/2023 20:16:36

Status update

14/03/2023 20:16:36

Last indexation

30/10/2024 09:32:04
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