Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr;133(7-8):393-398.
doi: 10.1007/s00508-020-01793-9. Epub 2020 Dec 22.

Sex and age differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe

Affiliations

Sex and age differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe

Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt et al. Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Aim: To examine the magnitude of sex differences in survival from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe across age groups and regions. We hypothesized that men have a higher mortality than women at any given age but that sex differences will decrease with age as only the healthiest men survive to older ages.

Methods: We used population data from the Institut National D'Études Démographiques on cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 from February to June 2020 in 10 European regions: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. For each region, we calculated cumulative mortality rates stratified by age and sex and corresponding relative risks for men vs. women.

Results: The relative risk of dying from COVID-19 was higher for men than for women in almost all age groups in all regions. The overall relative risk ranged from 1.11 (95% confidence interval, CI 1.01-1.23) in Portugal to 1.54 (95% CI 1.49-1.58) in France. In most regions, sex differences increased until the ages of 60-69 years, but decreased thereafter with the smallest sex difference at age 80+ years.

Conclusion: Despite variability in data collection and time coverage among regions, the study showed an overall similar pattern of sex differences in COVID-19 mortality in Europe.

Keywords: Cumulative mortality rates; European regions; Relative risks; SARS-CoV‑2; Sex difference.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

L.J. Ahrenfeldt, M. Otavova, K. Christensen, and R. Lindahl-Jacobsen declare that they have no competing interests.

Update of

References

    1. Austad SN, Fischer KE. Sex differences in lifespan. Cell Metab. 2016;23(6):1022–1033. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2016.05.019. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barford A, Dorling D, Davey SG, Shaw M. Life expectancy: women now on top everywhere. BMJ. 2006;332(7545):808. doi: 10.1136/bmj.332.7545.808. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zarulli V, Barthold Jones JA, Oksuzyan A, Lindahl-Jacobsen R, Christensen K, Vaupel JW. Women live longer than men even during severe famines and epidemics. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018;115(4):E832–E40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1701535115. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y, Liang WH, Ou CQ, He JX, et al. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708–1720. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2002032. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. JOHNS HOPKINS University & Medicine. Coronavirus resource center. 2020. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Accessed 27 June 2020.