P001. Gender Differences in Frailty in Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Introduction The intersection of frailty and heart failure (HF) continues to garner interest. Almost half of patients with HF are frail; however, gender differences in the prevalence of frailty in HF are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to quantify gender differences in the prevalence of frailty in HF. Methods Data from a subset of studies from a previous meta-analysis were analyzed if they included prevalence of frailty by gender. We performed a random-effects meta-analysis to quantify the relative and absolute risk of frailty in women compared to men with HF overall, and divided into Physical and Multidimensional Frailty measures. Risk ratios (RR) along with their confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Results Thirteen studies dated until July 2016, involving 3,662 women and men with HF were included in this meta-analysis. The estimated prevalence of frailty in HF was 51.4% for women and 33.9% for men. The overall absolute risk increase for women compared to men with HF being frail was 14% (z = 3.92, p Conclusions In HF, frailty affects women significantly more than men, although this was only noted among studies that measured physical frailty, and there was significant heterogeneity across studies. Future work should focus on elucidating potential causes of gender differences in frailty in HF.