Sex Differences and Frailty

Whether sex influences susceptibility to health deficits is well studied. The presence of sex differences in frailty is largely influenced by the constructs used to measure frailty. Index-based self-report measures of multi-dimensional health are consistently higher in females at a fixed age, but laboratory-based frailty grounded in cardiovascular indices are similar between sexes or higher in males. Greater rates of adverse events among males may contribute to the divergent outcomes between sexes, but this highlights the importance of measurement tool type when investigating sex and frailty. Increased use of healthcare services and willingness to report health concerns may partially explain the greater resilience to higher frailty among women. Preclinical models have indicated that physiological factors (cardiovascular, inflammation, genetics) contribute to frailty differences between male and female mice. Sex-specific strategies that address common factors that contribute to frailty development within males and females may be more effective for the prevention of accumulating health deficits.