Figure it out : a clinical measure of a group of retired immigrant workers living in social housing in France revealed that more than half of them were physically frail

Leila BETTAYEB, anthropologist, looks at the health of Chibanis (in Arabic dialect "gray hairs"), retired immigrants (mostly from the Maghreb) who have worked in France and live in social housing in the northern districts of Marseille. Her work focuses on their health needs, when the literature suggests that they have difficulty accessing healthcare. Her monographic approach is based on questionnaires and measurements providing socio-demographic, medical, anthropometric and clinical data. In 2021, this study included 67 male volunteers (aged 73 to 82) followed up by the national association "Banlieues Santé".

Descriptive results show an average grip strength score of 26 kg, below the standard threshold (27 kg); more than half of these retirees are below this threshold. Specifically, 21 of the 37 former construction workers and 6 of the 8 former cleaning staff have a grip strength below the norm vs. 10 of the 22 retirees from other occupations. Thus, it was among those who had worked in manual occupations that muscular strength was weakest.

The question of a more global muscular impairment, sarcopenia (reduced muscle mass and strength), remains open at this stage. Other criteria of deteriorated health present in the data will be examined (undernutrition, polypathology, polymedication). Situations at the crossroads of these indicators reflect social and health vulnerability: the aim is to understand how the combination of last occupation and socio-economic factors (resources, housing, diet, relative isolation) contributes to these frailties, in order to better identify needs in terms of access to and use of healthcare.