The impact of age and gender on mortality from COVID-19 at A UK Hospital

Abstract

Rationale: Age poses greater mortality risk to COVID-19 patients. This may be due to co-morbidities and age-related impairment of immunity. It has been shown that females are more likely to be infected however, severe disease is more often seen in males, which could be explained by greater levels of interferon-gamma promoter activity driven by oestrogen in females in addition to higher levels of IgG antibody providing more protection.^[1]

We aim to investigate the effects of age and gender on the mortality rate in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: A retrospective study of all in-patients aged ≥ 18 years with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 during the first and second waves of the pandemic. Admission CXRs were analysed. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-Squared Test for independence.

Results: 1759 COVID-19 patients were included in the study, of which 481 were aged <65 years and 982 were aged > 65 years. The study had 967 males and 792 females.

We found a higher mortality rate in those aged > 65 (41%) compared to those aged <65 years (18%) (P<0.001).

There were no significant differences in the mortality rates between both genders. However, interestingly males had a greater severity of pneumonitis (22%) on CXRs compared to females (13%) (P=0.01).

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated a positive correlation between increasing age and mortality with males showing a greater disease severity. This data should be considered when stratifying at risk groups and prioritising them for early intervention.

References:

1. Hu D, Lou X, Meng N et al. Influence of age and gender on the epidemic of COVID-19. Wien Klin Wochenschr 2021;133:321-330.