Media release

From: Springer Nature

COVID-19: Men more likely than women to have severe COVID-19 outcomes, independently of underlying health conditions

Men with COVID-19 are more likely to have severe outcomes, such as death and the need for intensive care, independently of underlying health conditions, whereas a higher likelihood of severe outcomes in women may be associated with comorbidities (additional health conditions). For both men and women with COVID-19, hypoxia (a lack of oxygen in the body) may be associated with an increased likelihood of death. The findings are published in the newly-launched journal Communications Medicine.

Dr Kuan-lin Huang and colleagues examined the medical data of patients aged 18 or over hospitalised with COVID-19 in New York City, looking at one set of data for 4,930 patients in early 2020, and another for 1,645 patients hospitalised later in the year. They found in the first group that while men were less likely than women to have certain comorbidities, such as obesity and hypertension, they nevertheless had an increased likelihood of mortality and need for intensive care. Male sex was associated with worse outcomes compared to women in both the examined patient groups when demographic factors and comorbidities were taken into consideration. For both men and women in the first patient group, certain conditions, such as hypoxia and obesity, were associated with an increased likelihood of severe COVID-19 outcomes, especially in women.

In the early-2020​ group, the authors also found that while men were more likely to present with signs of severe COVID-19 including hypoxia (24.3% compared to 20.2% of women), women with hypoxia were 3.67 times more likely to die and men 2.44 times more likely to die than patients without hypoxia. Obesity was associated with a higher likelihood of needing intensive care, especially in women. In the late-2020 ​​patient group that showed a lower mortality rate overall, men with obesity were more likely to die, but no other sex-dependent associations for comorbidities were significant.