Frailty patterns differed in older women and men with HIV
Frailty affected 17% of women versus 9% of men in a cross-sectional study of 588 adults aged 50 or older with HIV.
Limit: The associated conditions could follow frailty rather than cause it
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers compared frailty in 588 adults aged 50 or older with chronic HIV at two hospitals in Barcelona, Spain. The cross-sectional observational study included 139 women and 449 men. All were cisgender: their gender matched their sex assigned at birth.
Participants underwent assessments of physical, mental, cognitive and social health. Frailty, a state of reduced physical resilience, affected 17% of women and 9% of men. In analyses accounting for other measured factors, frailty in women was associated with muscle, bone or joint disease, impaired thinking, depressive symptoms and malnutrition. In men, it was associated with muscle, bone or joint disease, impaired thinking, malnutrition and older age. Age had a stronger association with frailty in men; depressive symptoms had a stronger association in women.
Why it matters
For aging people with HIV, the authors said the findings supported care tailored by gender, combining care for older adults with mental health and muscle, bone and joint care.
Caveats
This cross-sectional analysis could not show whether the associated conditions caused frailty or followed it. The sample did not include adults under 50 or transgender or gender-diverse people.
The paper
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya
Viruses, Jul 4, 2026, Open access
