- Most older adults have chronic disease; frailty exacerbates multimorbidity and increases disability, morbidity, and mortality.
- Sex and gender distinctly influence frailty and its outcomes; biological sex and sociocultural gender shape multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and frailty trajectories.
- Precision medicine requires integrating clinical and individual complexity into decisions and healthcare organisation to improve outcomes for all older people.
Eur J Intern Med. 2026 Aug 12:107130. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2026.107130. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Aging entails a progressive impairment of functions and, ultimately, leads to increased susceptibility to disability, morbidity, and mortality. Around 85% of people aged more than 75 years suffer from chronic diseases. Patients with chronic conditions often present a complex interplay of multimorbidity, polypharmacy and frailty, which are influenced by several characteristics of individuals, including biological sex (i.e., biological attributes, determined by the sex chromosomes, genes, reproductive and endocrine system) and sociocultural gender (i.e., a social construct which refers to culture-bound conventions, roles, and behaviours of individuals). The present narrative review aims to explore the impact of sex and gender on frailty and its related adverse outcomes. Addressing the health needs of the aged population requires the integration of both clinical and individual complexity into decision-making processes and organizational flows to pursue an effective implementation of precision medicine, in the quest to improve outcomes for all people.
PMID:42580909 | DOI:10.1016/j.ejim.2026.107130
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