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
Review
. 2021 Nov;31(6):e2223.
doi: 10.1002/rmv.2223. Epub 2021 Mar 1.

Sex-based differences in severity and mortality in COVID-19

Mustafa Alwani  1   2 , Aksam Yassin  1   3   4 , Raed M Al-Zoubi  1   5 , Omar M Aboumarzouk  6   7   8 , Joanne Nettleship  9 , Daniel Kelly  9   10 , Ahmad R Al-Qudimat  1 , Ridwan Shabsigh  11
Affiliations
Review

Sex-based differences in severity and mortality in COVID-19

Mustafa Alwani et al. Rev Med Virol. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a male bias in severity and mortality. This is consistent with previous coronavirus pandemics such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and viral infections in general. Here, we discuss the sex-disaggregated epidemiological data for COVID-19 and highlight underlying differences that may explain the sexual dimorphism to help inform risk stratification strategies and therapeutic options.

Keywords: COVID-19; dimorphism; sex.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Sex‐disaggregated data of confirmed COVID‐19 cases and deaths from countries with >10,000 cases. Cases and deaths are only reported where sex‐disaggregated data is available, and not total cases. Data from Global Health 50/50 COVID‐19 data tracker as of 31st October 2020.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Disease severity is higher in males as measured by hospitalizations and ICU admissions. Graphs reproduced from Global Health 50/50 COVID‐19 data tracker.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Reported COVID‐19 cases in Germany by age group and gender (n = 254,549) (Data accessed on10/09/2020, from https://www.rki.de/EN/Content/infections/epidemiology/outbreaks/COVID‐19/Situationsberichte_Tab.html)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization . WHO Coronavirus Disease Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/. Accessed September 7, 2020.
    1. Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y, et al. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708‐1720. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):507‐513. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Karlberg J, Chong DS, Lai WY. Do men have a higher case fatality rate of severe acute respiratory syndrome than women do? Am J Epidemiol. Feb 1. 2004;159(3):229‐231. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alghamdi IG, HussainII, Almalki SS, Alghamdi MS, Alghamdi MM, El‐Sheemy MA. The pattern of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in Saudi Arabia: a descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from the Saudi Ministry of Health. Int J Gen Med. 2014;7:417‐423. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms