Objective To investigate the nutritional condition and the influencing factors in the elderly patients with different kidney function levels. Methods A total of 189 patients hospitalized in our department during September 2016 to February 2017 were enrolled and retrospectively analyzed in this study. According to their scores of the mini nutritional assessment short-form (MNA-SF), the patients were divided into normal nutrition group (12-14 points), malnutrition risk group (8-11 points) and malnutrition group (0-7 points). Clinical data were compared and analyzed by SPSS statistics 20.0. The differences were compared with t test or Chi-square test respectively. The risk factors of malnutrition were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. Results Among the 189 patients, MNA-SF scores showed that 10 patients (5.3%) were suffering from malnutrition, 58 subjects (30.7%) in malnutrition status and 121 participants (64.0%) in normal nutrition condition. Compared with the normal nutrition group, the body mass index (BMI), albumin, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin (Hb) and lymphocyte count were significantly lower in the malnutrition risk group and the malnutrition group(P<0.05), and the percentage of neutral cell counts was significantly higher in the malnutrition group(P<0.05). The age distribution, renal function and anemia status of the patients at different nutritional status were statistically significant (P<0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the risk factors of malnutrition included aged (OR=1.06,5%CI:1.00-1.12), low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, OR=0.97,5%CI:0.94-1.00), low BMI (OR=0.76,5%CI:0.65-0.87), low albumin (OR=0.93, 95%CI:0.86-0.99) and anemia (OR=2.46,5%CI:1.60-3.32). ConclusionAging and renal insufficiency may increase the incidence of malnutrition risk and malnutrition, and malnutrition is also associated with BMI, albumin level, and anemia severity.