doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1090
Whether sex and gender matter to clinical pathways and outcomes associated with COVID-19. Analyses of data, and among 20 countries, it was found that:
- Six provide sex-disaggregated data for numbers of confirmed cases and deaths (China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea)
- Seven provide sex-disaggregated data for numbers of confirmed cases only (Austria, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland)
- No sex-disaggregated data could be located for eight countries (Belgium,[1] Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America), although both the Netherlands and Spain informed us that they were in the process of compiling sex-disaggregated data but they were not available at the time of reporting.
- Explanations focus on the immune system and underlying illnesses.