1887
Research Open Access
Like 0

Abstract

Background

Women are overrepresented among individuals with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). Biological (sex) as well as sociocultural (gender) differences between women and men might account for this imbalance, yet their impact on PASC is unknown.

Aim

We assessed the impact of sex and gender on PASC in a Swiss population.

Method

Our multicentre prospective cohort study included 2,856 (46% women, mean age 44.2 ± 16.8 years) outpatients and hospitalised patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Results

Among those who remained outpatients during their first infection, women reported persisting symptoms more often than men (40.5% vs 25.5% of men; p < 0.001). This sex difference was absent in hospitalised patients. In a crude analysis, both female biological sex (RR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.41–1.79; p < 0.001) and a score summarising gendered sociocultural variables (RR = 1.05; 95% CI: 1.03–1.07; p < 0.001) were significantly associated with PASC. Following multivariable adjustment, biological female sex (RR = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.74–1.25; p = 0.763) was outperformed by feminine gender-related factors such as a higher stress level (RR = 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01–1.06; p = 0.003), lower education (RR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.03–1.30; p = 0.011), being female and living alone (RR = 1.91; 95% CI: 1.29–2.83; p = 0.001) or being male and earning the highest income in the household (RR = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.60–0.97; p = 0.030).

Conclusion

Specific sociocultural parameters that differ in prevalence between women and men, or imply a unique risk for women, are predictors of PASC and may explain, at least in part, the higher incidence of PASC in women. Once patients are hospitalised during acute infection, sex differences in PASC are no longer evident.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.2.2300200
2024-01-11
2024-12-27
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.2.2300200
Loading
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/eurosurveillance/29/2/eurosurv-29-2-6.html?itemId=/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.2.2300200&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing the long-term effects of COVID-19. London: NICE; 2022. Available from: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng188/resources/covid19-rapid-guideline-managing-the-longterm-effects-of-covid19-pdf-51035515742
  2. Reuters. Long COVID could become Finland's largest chronic disease. Reuters; 2022. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-finland-long-covid-idUSKBN2JH14W
  3. Al-Aly Z, Xie Y, Bowe B. High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. Nature. 2021;594(7862):259-64.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03553-9  PMID: 33887749 
  4. Tsampasian V, Elghazaly H, Chattopadhyay R, Debski M, Naing TKP, Garg P, et al. Risk factors associated with post−COVID-19 condition: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(6):566-80.  https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.0750  PMID: 36951832 
  5. Bach K. New data shows long Covid is keeping as many as 4 million people out of work. Washington: Brookings Institution; 2022. Available from: https://www.brookings.edu/research/new-data-shows-long-covid-is-keeping-as-many-as-4-million-people-out-of-work
  6. Office for National Statistics. Half a million more people are out of the labour force because of long-term sickness. Newport: Office for National Statistics; 2022. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/economicinactivity/articles/halfamillionmorepeopleareoutofthelabourforcebecauseoflongtermsickness/2022-11-10
  7. Davis HE, McCorkell L, Vogel JM, Topol EJ. Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2023;21(3):133-46.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00846-2  PMID: 36639608 
  8. Sudre CH, Murray B, Varsavsky T, Graham MS, Penfold RS, Bowyer RC, et al. Attributes and predictors of long COVID. Nat Med. 2021;27(4):626-31.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01292-y  PMID: 33692530 
  9. Huang C, Huang L, Wang Y, Li X, Ren L, Gu X, et al. 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study. Lancet. 2023;401(10393):e21-33.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32656-8  PMID: 33428867 
  10. Ayoubkhani D, Pawelek P. Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 6 January 2022. Newport: Office for National Statistics; 2022. Available from: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/prevalenceofongoingsymptomsfollowingcoronaviruscovid19infectionintheuk/6january2022
  11. Kozak R, Armstrong SM, Salvant E, Ritzker C, Feld J, Biondi MJ, et al. Recognition of long-COVID-19 patients in a Canadian tertiary hospital setting: a retrospective analysis of their clinical and laboratory characteristics. Pathogens. 2021;10(10):1246.  https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10101246  PMID: 34684195 
  12. Fernández-de-Las-Peñas C, Martín-Guerrero JD, Pellicer-Valero ÓJ, Navarro-Pardo E, Gómez-Mayordomo V, Cuadrado ML, et al. Female sex is a risk factor associated with long-term post-COVID related-symptoms but not with COVID-19 symptoms: The LONG-COVID-EXP-CM Multicenter Study. J Clin Med. 2022;11(2):413.  https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11020413  PMID: 35054108 
  13. The Sex, Gender and COVID-19 Project. The COVID-19 sex-disaggregated data tracker. Cambridge: Global Health 50/50. [Accessed: 24 Aug 2023]. Available from: https://globalhealth5050.org/the-sex-gender-and-covid-19-project/the-data-tracker
  14. Crook H, Raza S, Nowell J, Young M, Edison P. Long covid-mechanisms, risk factors, and management. BMJ. 2021;374(1648):n1648.  https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1648  PMID: 34312178 
  15. Lott N, Gebhard CE, Bengs S, Haider A, Kuster GM, Regitz-Zagrosek V, et al. Sex hormones in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility: key players or confounders? Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2023;19(4):217-31. PMID: 36494595 
  16. Regner E. "Gender should be taken into account in clinical trials for anti-COVID-19 treatments”. Press release. Brussels: European Parliament; 2021. Available from: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20210706IPR07855/gender-should-be-taken-into-account-in-clinical-trials-for-anti-covid-treatments
  17. Tadiri CP, Gisinger T, Kautzy-Willer A, Kublickiene K, Herrero MT, Raparelli V, et al. The influence of sex and gender domains on COVID-19 cases and mortality. CMAJ. 2020;192(36):E1041-5.  https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.200971  PMID: 32900766 
  18. Manandhar M, Hawkes S, Buse K, Nosrati E, Magar V. Gender, health and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Bull World Health Organ. 2018;96(9):644-53.  https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.18.211607  PMID: 30262946 
  19. Johnson JL, Greaves L, Repta R. Better science with sex and gender: Facilitating the use of a sex and gender-based analysis in health research. Int J Equity Health. 2009;8(1):14.  https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-8-14  PMID: 19419579 
  20. Nielsen MW, Stefanick ML, Peragine D, Neilands TB, Ioannidis JPA, Pilote L, et al. Gender-related variables for health research. Biol Sex Differ. 2021;12(1):23.  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-021-00366-3  PMID: 33618769 
  21. Pelletier R, Ditto B, Pilote L. A composite measure of gender and its association with risk factors in patients with premature acute coronary syndrome. Psychosom Med. 2015;77(5):517-26.  https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000186  PMID: 25984818 
  22. Bem SL. The measurement of psychological androgyny. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1974;42(2):155-62.  https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036215  PMID: 4823550 
  23. Pelletier R, Khan NA, Cox J, Daskalopoulou SS, Eisenberg MJ, Bacon SL, et al. Sex versus gender-related characteristics: Which predicts outcome after acute coronary syndrome in the young? J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016;67(2):127-35.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2015.10.067  PMID: 26791057 
  24. Döring N. Zur Operationalisierung von Geschlecht im Fragebogen: Probleme und Lösungsansätze aus Sicht von Mess-, Umfrage-, Gender-und Queer-Theorie. GENDER–Zeitschrift für Geschlecht. [On the operationalization of gender in questionnaires: Problems and suggested solutions from a perspective of measuring, survey, gender and queer theory. GENDER magazine for gender]. Kultur und Gesellschaft.2013;5(2):94-113. German.
  25. Cummings P. Methods for estimating adjusted risk ratios. Stata J. 2009;9(2):175-96.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867X0900900201 
  26. Danielsen AC, Lee KM, Boulicault M, Rushovich T, Gompers A, Tarrant A, et al. Sex disparities in COVID-19 outcomes in the United States: Quantifying and contextualizing variation. Soc Sci Med. 2022;294:114716.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114716  PMID: 35042136 
  27. Stewart S, Newson L, Briggs TA, Grammatopoulos D, Young L, Gill P. Long COVID risk - a signal to address sex hormones and women’s health. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 2021;11:100242.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2021.100242  PMID: 34746909 
  28. Dehingia N, Raj A. Sex differences in COVID-19 case fatality: do we know enough? Lancet Glob Health. 2021;9(1):e14-5.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30464-2  PMID: 33160453 
  29. Islam N, Khunti K, Dambha-Miller H, Kawachi I, Marmot M. COVID-19 mortality: a complex interplay of sex, gender and ethnicity. Eur J Public Health. 2020;30(5):847-8.  https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa150  PMID: 32745211 
  30. Wenham C, Smith J, Morgan R, Gender and COVID-19 Working Group. COVID-19: the gendered impacts of the outbreak. Lancet. 2020;395(10227):846-8.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30526-2  PMID: 32151325 
  31. Horstmann S, Schmechel C, Palm K, Oertelt-Prigione S, Bolte G. The operationalisation of sex and gender in quantitative health-related research: a scoping review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(12):7493.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127493  PMID: 35742742 
  32. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Gender Inequality Index (GII). New York: UNDP. [Accessed: 14 Dec 2023]. Available from: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/thematic-composite-indices/gender-inequality-index#/indicies/GII
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.2.2300200
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary data

Submit comment
Close
Comment moderation successfully completed
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error