Objective:To study the relationship between red blood cell distribution width(RDW)and short-term mortality in elderly patients with hip fragility fractures.Methods:The clinical data and blood routine test at admission of 205 elderly patients with brittle hip fractures who were admitted to our hospital from 2020 to 2021 and were followed up for one year were retrospectively analyzed.The comorbid conditions, RDW and cumulative mortality at 6 months and 1 year after fractures were counted, and the relationship between RDW and short-term mortality were analyzed.Results:The 6-month(6.7% and 20.8%, χ2=8.591, P=0.003)and 1-year(6.7% and 26.7%, χ2=14.818, P<0.001)mortality of patients with ≤1 comorbidity were significantly lower than those of patients with ≥2 comorbidities.Moreover, the 6-month and 1-year mortality in patients with RDW>13.5% were significantly higher than those of patients with RDW ≤ 13.5%.The proportion of RDW>13.5 % in patients with at least two comorbidities was significantly higher than that in patients with ≤1 comorbidity.Taking RDW=13.6% as the cut-off value of 6-month and 1-year mortality, the sensitivity and specificity for predicting 6-month mortality were 71.4 % and 59.9 %, respectively, and the sensitivity and specificity for predicting 1-year mortality were 64.7 % and 59.6 %, respectively. Conclusions:Red cell distribution width is associated with short-term mortality, and higher RDW is associated with a higher risk of mortality among elderly patients with brittle hip fractures.