Association Between Hypoalbuminemia and Mortality in Critically Ill Non-Surgical Adult Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose: The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess if hypoalbuminemia can predict mortality in critically ill non-surgical adult patients. Methods: We searched on Public Access to Medline (PubMed), Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC) and ScienceDirect databases for relevant articles published from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2024. We included observational studies of critically ill non-surgical adult patients in European hospitals. We performed the meta-analysis on Review Manager (RevMan Web by Cochrane Collaboration). The adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) for the association between hypoalbuminemia and mortality was extracted from included articles and pooled with 95% confidence intervals (CI). A random effect model was used. Sensitivity analysis was performed on RevMan. Results: We included a total of 9 observational studies with 6846 participants. Hypoalbuminemia was significantly associated with high mortality among critically ill non-surgical adult patients. The pooled OR was: 1.93 95% CI: 1.45, 2.56. Heterogeneity (I2) = 93% P Conclusion: The meta-analysis found that Hypoalbuminemia is a significant predictor of mortality for critically ill non-surgical adult patients. Our results may suggest that great attention should be paid for critically ill non-surgical adult patients with hypoalbuminemia to reduce the bad outcome. Health policies and procedures should include the albumin test for better outcomes.