Dr. S V Subramanian, Professor of Population Health and Geography, and others have recently authored “Equal risk, unequal burden? Gender differentials in COVID-19 mortality in India” in the Journal of Global Health Sciences. The study has been featured in BBC, The New Indian Express and The Telegraph.
Abstract
Background
Early reports on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case fatalities in India suggests that males are at a greater disadvantage than females, but it is unclear whether males experience a higher risk of mortality throughout the age-spectrum or there are sex-differentials in survival risk. We adopt a gender lens and present a disaggregated view of age-sex specific COVID-19 infection and mortality risk in India.
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Early evidence indicates that males have higher overall burden, but females have a higher relative-risk of COVID-19 mortality in India. Elderly males and females both display high mortality risk and require special care when infected. Greater focus on data collection and sharing of age-sex specific COVID-19 cases and mortality data is necessary to develop robust estimates of COVID-19 case fatality to support policy decisions.
Citation
Joe W, Kumar A, Rajpal S, Mishra U, Subramanian SV. Equal risk, unequal burden? Gender differentials in COVID-19 mortality in India. J Glob Health Sci. 2020 Jun;2(1):e17. https://doi.org/10.35500/jghs.2020.2.e17