Inflammation is one of the pathogenesis of frailty, Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are newly proposed inflammatory indicators. This study aimed to explore the relationship between NLR, PLR and frailty in elderly inpatient with comorbidity.

Inpatient elderly with comorbidity in our geriatric department from January 2015 to December 2018 were selected, and three groups, which included frailty, pre-frailty and robust, were divided by 5-item FRAIL scale. General data of the patients were collected, and comprehensive geriatric assessment was performed. NLR and PLR were calculated by neutrophil, lymphocyte and platelet in blood. SPSS24.0 software was used for analysis.

The neutrophil count, percentage of neutrophil, NLR of the frail group was significantly increased compared with other groups, but not PLR. White blood cell (r = 0.091, P = 0.031), neutrophil (r = 0.110, P = 0.009), neutrophil percentage (r = 0.109, P = 0.010) and NLR (r = 0.122, P = 0.004) was significantly positively correlated with frailty, while percentage of lymphocytes (r = −0.127, P = 0.002) was negatively correlate.

With frailty as the dependent variable, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that NLR was not an independent risk factor for frailty (P > 0.05).

Although results from the present study revealed associations between frailty and neutrophil and NLR in elderly inpatient with comorbidity, the potential role of these inflammation indicators on frailty needs further prospective investigation and researches involving larger population to improve its reliability.