Sex-specific difference of in-hospital mortality from COVID-19 in South Korea.

Ae-Young Her,Eun Jung Jun,Song Lin Yuan,Semin Lee,Eun-Seok Shin,Scot Garg,Jong Bhak,Youngjune Bhak,Yoshihiro Fukumoto

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262861

Abstract

We sought to assess the impact of sex on in-hospital mortality of patients with COVID-19 infection in South Korea. The study recruited 5,628 prospective consecutive patients who were hospitalized in South Korea with COVID-19 infection, and enrolled in the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) dataset between January 20, 2020, and April 30, 2020. The primary endpoint was in-hospital death from COVID-19. The cohort comprised of 3,308 women (59%) and 2,320 men (41%). In-hospital death was significantly lower in women than men (3.5% vs. 5.5%, hazard ratio (HR): 0.61; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.47 to 0.79, p <0.001). Results were consistent after multivariable regression (HR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.41 to 0.85, p = 0.023) and propensity score matching (HR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.86, p = 0.012). In South Korea, women had a significantly lower risk of in-hospital death amongst those patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection.

Highlights

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China in December 2019, it has rapidly spread around the world [1,2,3]
The reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test was used for detecting COVID-19, and nasal and pharyngeal swab specimens were collected from patients
A total of 5,628 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were included in the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) dataset during the pandemic period

Summary

Introduction

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China in December 2019, it has rapidly spread around the world [1,2,3]. A recent analysis of COVID-19 data from 188 countries has shown sex-specific mortality differences with higher death rates in men compared with women, the underlying mechanisms are unclear [5]. These findings are not consistent in all countries, and sex-specific morbidity and mortality vary among different countries. This would imply that there are geographic, genetic, cultural and/or sex-specific differences that may influence the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent mortality

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