Frailty Unveiled: How Sexual and Gender Minorities Face Unique Aging Challenges
Ever heard of frailty? It's a medical term that describes a state where your body is more vulnerable to stressors like illness or injury, and it's a key indicator of how well you're aging. Now, imagine being a sexual or gender minority (like LGBTQ+ individuals) and facing a higher risk of frailty. Groundbreaking research has developed a new tool called the AoU-FI (All of Us Frailty Index) to measure frailty in adults over 50. This tool revealed that sexual and gender minority adults are more likely to be frail compared to their heterosexual counterparts.
The AoU-FI is a scoring system that uses 33 different health indicators to assess frailty. The study found that 26% of sexual and gender minority adults were frail, compared to 19% of non-minority adults. What's even more alarming is that frailty in these minorities is linked to a higher risk of mortality. This calls for immediate attention to understand how frailty uniquely impacts this community and what can be done to mitigate it.
