Table 1.
Summary of claims involving statements regarding men being more affected by the COVID-19 compared to women. X indicates correlation of that variable with the COVID-19. M: men are more affected, F: women are more affected by COVID-19, SSD: Statistically Significant Difference, NSD: Non Statistically-significant difference. Factors: S: Smoking, D: Drinking, C: Cancer, H: Hypertension, DM: Diabetes mellitus, CD: Cardiovascular diseases, CRD: Chronic respiratory disease, CLD-chronic lung disease, HD: Heart disease, O: Obesity, II: Inflammatory immune responses, CHK: Chronic kidney disease, CPD: Chronic pulmonary disease. Even though most articles claim men are more affected by COVID-19 than women and die more, none of them shows statistical significance nor has enough data to provide causal links beyond correlational studies.
| Study | Tested hypothesis | Men are more vulnerable | Reported health conditions | Age correlation |
Reported drinking/ smoking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Impact of sex and gender on COVID-19 outcomes in Europe (Gebhard et al., 2020) | COVID-19 is deadlier for infected men than women | ✓(NSD: M) | C, H, DM, CD, CRD, CLD | ✓ | ✓(D, S) |
| Coronavirus: why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than women? (Bwire, 2020) | There are higher morbidity and mortality rates in males than females | ✓(NSD: M) | O, DM, H | ✓ | |
| Biological sex impacts COVID-19 outcomes (Klein et al., 2020) | Mechanistic differences including the expression and activity of ACE2 enzyme result in antiviral immunity, cases, hospitalizations and deaths differences. | ✓(NSD: M) | CPD, CKD, II, HD, O | ✓ | |
| COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreaks (Wenham et al., 2020) | Men are more likely to remain hospitalized an die and less likely to be discharged from the hospital than women. | ✓(NSD: M) | H | ✓ | ✓(S) |
| Racial and gender based differences in COVID-19 (Kopel et al., 2020) | Ethnic differences influence susceptibility and mortality | ✓(NSD: M) | HD, O, CLD, C, H, DM, CD | ✓ | ✓(D, S) |
| Sex Differences in Mortality From COVID-19 Pandemic: Are Men Vulnerable and Women Protected? (Sharma et al., 2020) | Male sex plays a role in increased mortality rates | ✓(NSD: M) | H, DM, CD, CRD, CLD | ✓ | |
| The influence of sex and gender domains on COVID-19 cases and mortality (Tadiri et al., 0000) | Gender Inequality Index is positively associated with male:female cases ratio | ✓(SSD: M) | 19 | ||
| Male sex identified by global COVID-19 meta-analysis as a risk factor for death and ITU admission (Peckham et al., 2020) | Male sex is a risk factor for death and ITU admission but not for infections. | ✓(SSD: M) | H, II, C | ✓ | ✓(S) |