Sex Differences in Covid-19 Mortality in the United States: A State-Level Analysis

Simona Bignami , Université de Montréal
Pietro Violo , Université de Montréal
Timothy Riffe , Universidad del País Vasco & Ikerbasque (Basque Foundation for Science)
Enrique Acosta , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Daniela Ghio , University of Catania

Male mortality due to COVID-19 has been found to be higher than women’s due to a combination of biological and behavioural factors. The United States has been one of the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with large variation at the state and county level in infection and mortality rates. We take advantage of this variation to assess sex differentials in COVID-19 mortality across US states, and how do they compare with all-cause mortality. Confirming the results of earlier studies, we find that sex differences in COVID-19 mortality rates are greater than all cause-mortality in approximately half of US states. Sex differences in COVID-19 mortality for adults 40+ decrease and narrow with age, being highest in the Western states and lowest in the Southern States. Finally, in most states, sex differences for COVID-19 were larger than for other common causes of death, but only between age 40 and 60.

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 Presented in Session 14. COVID-19 mortality across groups and subpopulations