AUTHOR=Jin Jian-Min , Bai Peng , He Wei , Wu Fei , Liu Xiao-Fang , Han De-Min , Liu Shi , Yang Jin-Kui 

TITLE=Gender Differences in Patients With COVID-19: Focus on Severity and Mortality

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00152

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2020.00152

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objective:</bold> The recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is reminiscent of the SARS outbreak in 2003. We aim to compare the severity and mortality between male and female patients with COVID-19 or SARS.</p><p><bold>Study Design and Setting:</bold> We extracted the data from: (1) a case series of 43 hospitalized patients we treated, (2) a public data set of the first 37 cases of patients who died of COVID-19 and 1,019 patients who survived in China, and (3) data of 524 patients with SARS, including 139 deaths, from Beijing in early 2003.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Older age and a high number of comorbidities were associated with higher severity and mortality in patients with both COVID-19 and SARS. Age was comparable between men and women in all data sets. In the case series, however, men's cases tended to be more serious than women's (<italic>P</italic> = 0.035). In the public data set, the number of men who died from COVID-19 is 2.4 times that of women (70.3 vs. 29.7%, <italic>P</italic> = 0.016). In SARS patients, the gender role in mortality was also observed. The percentage of males were higher in the deceased group than in the survived group (<italic>P</italic> = 0.015).</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> While men and women have the same prevalence, men with COVID-19 are more at risk for worse outcomes and death, independent of age.</p>