Gendered Differentials in Symptoms, Morbidity, and Case Fatality Rate in COVID-19 Pandemic in India: A Study of Karnataka State

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in heavy loss of life worldwide and indeed has an adverse outcome on the health of both the genders. Statistics revealed that fewer females are getting affected directly than males, though the former might be more affected by its consequences. Some studies at the global level have suggested gender as the key determining factor in case of COVID-19, but there is a lack of such studies in a developing country like India. Considering the need, this study has analyzed the gender wise pattern of symptoms, morbidity, multimorbidity, and mortality due to COVID-19 in Karnataka, India. Methods: We used patient-level raw data from 09th March to 05th September 2020. We have used descriptive statistics such as frequency, and percentage distribution along with the latent class analysis (LCA) to carry out this analysis. Findings: A total of 78,983 COVID-19 patients comprising of 63.6% males and 36.4% females were included in the study. Out of total patients, 10.1% were reported as deceased from which 68.4% were males and 31.6% females. We found that in case of diseases symptoms, all three symptoms (cough, breathlessness, and fever) were higher among males as compared to females. Males tend to have a higher risk of severe infection and mortality in general while females suffering from comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension are at higher risk of mortality due to COVID-19 than male counterparts. Latent class analysis further reflected a higher proportion of females with two or more symptoms whereas more males were found having more than two comorbidities.Interpretation: Given the differences in lethality between the two genders, we believe that studying gender differentials extensively will help in finding the root causes of the gender differentials in COVID-19 pandemic and help policymakers in finding suitable interventions to reduce the spread.