Objective To investigate the predictive value of serum levels of chitinase 1(CHIT1)and angiotensinⅡ receptor-like 1 endogenous ligand 13(Apelin-13)for delayed healing in traumatic fracture patients.Methods A total of 102 elderly patients with traumatic fracture admitted to the Department of Orthopedics of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Xin-jiang Medical University from April 2020 to April2023 were selected.They were separated into a delayed healing group(34 cases)and a normal healing group(68 cases)based on their healing status.Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was applied to detect the levels of CHIT1 and Apelin-13 in serum;Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors affecting delayed healing in patients with traumatic fractures.receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was ap-plied to analyze the predictive value of CHIT1 and Apelin-13 in serum for delayed healing in patients with traumatic frac-tures.Results Compared with the normal healing group,the delayed healing group showed an obvious increase in serum CHIT1 level and an obvious decrease in Apelin-13 level(t/P=10.905/<0.001,6.497/<0.001).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the high level of CHIT1[OR(95%CI)=2.263(1.351-3.789)]and the high level of Apelin-13[OR(95%CI)=0.685(0.552-0.850)]were the influencing factors for delayed healing in patients with traumatic fractures.ROC curve analysis results showed that the area under the curve(AUC)of the combination of the two in predicting delayed healing in traumatic fracture patients was higher than AUC predicted by CHIT1 and Apelin-13 alone(Z=7.788,P<0.001;Z=3.161,P= 0.002).Conclusion CHIT1 is highly expressed in the serum of elderly patients with delayed healing of traumatic fractures,while Apelin-13 is lowly expressed.Both have certain predictive value for delayed healing of traumatic fracture patients.