A new study suggests that the risk of dying due to coronavirus is greater by 62 per cent for men than women. The study was published on the official website of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
Researchers suggested that this could be due to high levels of inflammation developed in men when they contract the virus.
According to the study presented at ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, online 23-25 September), men are more likely to experience the critical phases of the viral infection.
Study authors from University Hospital Regensburg, Germany said in a statement: “Men have higher death rates as well as more frequent ICU admissions and longer hospital stays, that are all associated with higher inflammatory parameters during all phases of Covid-19.”
For the study, the research team examined 3,129 adult patients with Covid-19, enrolled between March and July 2020.
They described clinical manifestation of Covid-19 in four phases: uncomplicated (asymptomatic/mild symptoms), complicated (need for oxygen supplementation), critical (need for critical care), and recovery.
The study findings suggested that progression to a critical phase, including ICU cases, was seen more often in men than in women (30.6 per cent vs 17.2 per cent). The mean hospital length of stay was longer in male patients (15.4 vs 13.3 days).
The findings showed that for Covid-19 positive patients, being male can be an independent risk factor as the risk of death rise by 62 per cent for them.
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Authors wrote: “In our cohort, this effect was not explained by differences in comorbidities, age or BMI between male and female patients.”
“We need further studies on what exactly makes men more vulnerable to Covid-19. We do not yet know which biological or possibly social factors lead to these marked differences,” the authors concluded.