Impact of Underweight Status on Mortality in Sepsis Patients: a Meta-analysis

Overview

Journal Front Med (Lausanne)

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2025 Feb 21

PMID 39981083

Authors

Jiaan Chen

Fan Zhang

Li Liang

Xuming Pan

Jiancheng Zhang

Guangjun Jin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: The evidence regarding the impact of underweight status on clinical outcomes in patients with sepsis are still scarce and controversial. We aimed at conducting a meta-analysis to evaluate the potential associations between underweight and the mortality rate among sepsis patients.

Methods: A comprehensive electronic search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science databases. Odds ratios (ORs) or mean differences and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using RevMan 5.3.

Results: A total of 58,348 patients (normal weight group: 49,084 patients; underweight group: 9,264 patients) from 23 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that the in-hospital mortality (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.21, 1.35; heterogeneity: = 21%, = 0.21), 28-day mortality (OR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.26, 1.88; heterogeneity: = 74%, < 0.0001) and 1-year mortality (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.58, 2.00; heterogeneity: = 41%, = 0.17) of underweight patients were significantly higher than those of normal weight patients. However, there was no significant difference in length of hospital stay or intensive care unit length of stay between underweight patients and normal-weight patients.

Conclusion: Underweight is associated with increased mortality in patients with sepsis. Physicians should pay more attention to the management of underweight sepsis patients.

Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=631417, identifier CRD42025631417.

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