In a new study, researchers found that women tend to have poorer health status and are frailer, but are more resilient and have longer life expectancy than men.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Queensland and elsewhere.
Frailty can be defined as a state of increased vulnerability that is associated with adverse health outcomes.
A frail older person takes longer to recover after any sort of insult (such as infection, infarction or adverse drug reactions) and during the period of recovery is more vulnerable to further stressors.
Increasing frailty is linked to syndromic disease presentations; falls, delirium, functional decline, and new urinary incontinence may reflect acute illness in a frail older person and should never be dismissed as ‘normal for age.’
In the study, the team described the differences in frailty between men and women as the “sex-frailty paradox.”
In community-dwelling populations aged over 65 years, women are more likely to be frail and to have a greater burden of frailty than men of the same age.
Yet women appear to be more resilient—at any given age or level of frailty, their mortality rates are lower.
The team examined the evidence about frailty interventions. Exercise and nutrition-based interventions were found to have the highest levels of benefits.
Some evidence implies that some interventions work better for one sex than the other.
Exercise programs appear to be effective in both sexes. However, sarcopenia, low physical activity, and functional impairment are more prevalent in older women than men.
It is possible that women may benefit from a different type or intensity of exercise intervention than men.
With respect to nutrition, men may benefit from interventions to a greater extent than women.
The authors concluded that there was the scope and growing need for further research into frailty, and particularly the sex-frailty paradox.
One author of the study is Dr. Emily Gordon, a consultant geriatrician.
The study is published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Copyright © 2019 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
