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Abstract Rational and objective The perception of frailty among older, racialised minority migrants living in the UK has not yet been explored. Set against a backdrop of enduring health inequality in older age, whereby ethnicity is a constant corelative factor, and the increasing use of frailty scores and measures to make clinical decisions; knowing how older, racialised minority migrants understand and make sense of frailty is essential. Methods Photovoice and biographical interviews were used to explore the experience of getting older among 73 participants of 6 different racialised groups living in a UK city. Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse talk about frailty. Results Many of the participants hadn’t heard the term frailty and had no understanding of what it might mean. Three key themes were identified across participant talk. (i) Frailty is meaningless, (ii) stigma discourse prevails and (iii) the feeling of frailty ebbs and flows. Trends observed across the themes related to use of English and length of time in the UK. The first theme was more likely to be the case for participants who spoke little English and for those who hadn’t been living in the UK for long. Conclusion and implications Healthcare professionals must consider that older, racially minoritised patients may have never encountered the term frailty before in any type of setting. This will have a direct impact on candidacy and the negotiated access to and uptake of healthcare services.
Cluley et al. (Wed,) studied this question.