A study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine shows men who wind up in the hospital due to COVID-19 have a 30% higher death rate than women who are also hospitalized.
That’s one of the key take-aways from a new study that looked at nearly 67,000 patients in over 600 hospitals across the country. The University of Maryland researchers reviewed patients who entered the hospital between April and June of this year.
The goal of the study was to look at which preexisting conditions among hospitalized patients were the best predictors of death.
While patients who came in with diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity presented some risk, the largest predictor of death among all ages and preexisting conditions was being male.
The study also showed that death rates decreased each month hospitals became more familiar with treating patients with COVID-19.
Other results of the study showed:
- The risk of death increased with each decade of age.
- White men were more likely to die than Black men.
- Younger adults (ages 20 to 39) with preexisting conditions had a higher chance of dying relative to their age than older adults.
- Patients over 80 years old had the highest death rates.
- Children had the lowest death rates.
“Predicting which hospitalized COVID-19 patients have the highest risk of dying has taken on urgent importance as cases and hospitalizations in the U.S. continue to surge to record high numbers during the month of December,” said study corresponding author Anthony D. Harris, MD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“Knowledge is power in many ways, so I think understanding which hospitalized COVID-19 patients are at highest risk of mortality can help guide difficult treatment decisions.”
WTOP’s Dan Friedell contributed to this story.
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