Male sex identified by global COVID-19 meta-analysis as a risk factor for death and ITU admission
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Hannah Peckham Nina M de Gruijter Charles Raine Anna Radziszewska Coziana Ciurtin Lucy R Wedderburn Elizabeth C Rosser Kate Webb Claire T DeakinAbstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, exhibits differences in morbidity and mortality between sexes. Here, we present a meta-analysis of 3,111,714 reported global cases to demonstrate that, whilst there is no difference in the proportion of males and females with confirmed COVID-19, male patients have almost three times the odds of requiring intensive treatment unit (ITU) admission (OR = 2.84; 95% CI = 2.06, 3.92) and higher odds of death (OR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.31, 1.47) compared to females. With few exceptions, the sex bias observed in COVID-19 is a worldwide phenomenon. An appreciation of how sex is influencing COVID-19 outcomes will have important implications for clinical management and mitigation strategies for this disease.
Journal details
Journal Nature Communications
Volume 11
Issue number 1
Pages 6317
Available online
Publication date
Full text links
Publisher website (DOI) 10.1038/s41467-020-19741-6
Europe PubMed Central 33298944
Pubmed 33298944