Sex-specific clinical characteristics and prognosis of coronavirus disease-19 infection in Wuhan, China: A retrospective study of 168 severe patients

To confirm the relationship between sex and the progression of Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), and its potential mechanism, among severe patients. For this retrospective study, we included 168 consecutive severe patients with pathogen-confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized between January 16th and February 4th, 2020, at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China. Clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, and outcomes were compared and analyzed between males and females. In the present study, we analyzed 168 severe patients with COVID-19, including 86 males and 82 females, and 48 patients (28.6%) were diagnosed as critically ill. Of 86 male patients, 12.8% (11/86) died and 75.6% (65/86) were discharged; of 82 female patients, 7.3% (6/82) died and 86.6% (71/82) were discharged. Eleven laboratory parameters showed significant differences between male and female patients, and six of them were higher during the whole clinical course in patients who died than in patients who were discharged. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, males with comorbidities presented a higher risk of being critically ill than males without comorbidities (OR = 3.824, 95% CI = 1.279–11.435). However, this association attenuated to null in female patients (OR = 2.992, 95% CI = 0.937–9.558). A similar sex-specific trend was observed in the relation between age and critically ill conditions. We highlighted sex-specific differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis. Male patients appeared to be more susceptible to age and comorbidities. Sex is an important biological variable that should be considered in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. AUTHOR SUMMARY: Overall, our results highlight sex-specific differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis to COVID-19, which are consistent with the sex-bias observed in other COVID-19 related studies. We also provided more evidence and explored the underlying mechanism with epidemiological analysis. Six candidate laboratory indicators with significant sex differences were considered as potential mediators affecting the prognosis of COVID-19. The age-specific risk distributions of COVID-19 showed a positive correlation between the prognosis and age/ comorbidities, which was significantly affected by sex. We also emphasize that sex is a biological variable that should be considered in the prevention and therapy of COVID-19. It is our hope that these methods may serve as a guide to the clinician in providing timely and specific therapy. Obviously, future studies are warranted to elucidate the different pathways and cellular responses between women and men. The key challenge is how best to use this disparity for providing adequate protection in both males and females