They said being male could be a significant risk-factor for worse disease severity, regardless of age.
Men and women are at equal risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, but men are more likely to suffer severe effects of the virus and die, according to a study which suggests that older male patients with COVID-19 may need additional supportive care.
While the elderly and those with certain pre-existing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure were reported in earlier research to be at greater risk of death due to COVID-19, the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, examined gender differences in patients infected with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
In the study, scientists, including Jin-Kui Yang from the Beijing Tongren Hospital in China, assessed trends among COVID-19 patients who died.
“Early in January we noticed that the number of men dying from COVID-19 appeared to be higher than the number of women,” said Yang.
“This raised a question: are men more susceptible to getting or dying from COVID-19? We found that no-one had measured gender differences in COVID-19 patients, and so began investigating,” he added.
