Highlights
- •A sex–frailty paradox exists, where females tend to be more frail but live longer than males.
- •Frailty in ethnic minority women is likely exacerbated by health inequalities and other factors.
- •While the evidence on frailty in ethnic minority women is sparse and mostly from cross-sectional and cohort studies, we conclude that ethnic minority women are an extremely vulnerable group.
- •The biopsychosocial factors that are most likely to be influential in the development of frailty in ethnic minority women are not immutable, and culturally appropriate and targeted strategies have the potential to positively impact outcomes.
- •Efforts to impact the trajectory of frailty and vulnerability in ethnic minorities need to have a global-level and population-level approaches, and should incorporate individual-level interventions.
- •Future research should focus on understanding the impact of interventions across races and ethnicities.
Abstract
In majority populations in high- and middle-income countries, women live longer yet
experience higher levels of frailty than men of the same age. It is unclear whether
this ‘sex–frailty paradox’ is present in ethnic minority populations. In this narrative
review, we explore biological, behavioural and social factors associated with mortality,
morbidity and frailty in women, particularly ethnic minority women. We ascertain that
natural menopause occurs earlier in women of particular ethnicities. Ethnic minority
women (living in high-income countries) have more children and higher rates of chronic
disease and disability, all of which are associated with frailty. In some ethnic minorities,
women are less likely to engage in deleterious health behaviours such as smoking and
alcohol consumption. However, in others the reverse is true. Women from migrant ethnic
minorities tend to have lower levels of physical activity. With time, they can also
adopt adverse behavioural patterns of the majority population. Although the evidence
is sparse, sex differences in health reporting and social assets, as well as gender
roles, are likely to contribute to sex differences in frailty in ethnic minorities.
Overall, ethnic minority women are a particularly vulnerable group, but the majority
of risk factors for frailty appear to be mutable rather than fixed. Future research
may examine interventions that target frailty in different races and ethnicities at
individual, population and global levels.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 13, 2021
Accepted:
July 8,
2021
Received in revised form:
July 5,
2021
Received:
April 11,
2021
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© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
