Are Young Indian Women at High Death Risk Due to COVID?

In India, young women with comorbidities like Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), diabetes, and hypertension were found to be at an increased death risk due to coronavirus than men, according to a retrospective study.

A team of researchers from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India, conducted the study on 2,586 COVID-19 hospitalized patients who were admitted in the hospital from April 8 to October 4, 2020.

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‘COVID deaths are higher in young Indian women with comorbidities.’

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The patients were divided into two categories: aged between 18 and 59 years; and those above 60 years of age. The team observed the association of diabetes, hypertension or high blood pressure and CKD on the prognosis and mortality of COVID infected hospitalized patients.

The conditions have been, from the beginning of the pandemic, associated with the progression of COVID disease to severity and higher mortality risk. These have also been linked with prolonged recovery period.

The findings, published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, showed that patients with CKD were the most prone to severity and mortality, followed by high blood pressure and diabetes.

Compared to the elderly patients with these comorbidities, the severity of COVID infection and mortality was found to be much higher in younger patients.

Comorbidities and COVID-19 in Women

Many studies have reported males are at higher risk of infection than females. In this study, although the number of COVID admitted male patients (69.6%) was more than twice the number of females (30.4%), the risk of severity of infection and mortality was found to be higher among the females.

This is even after having the same comorbid conditions, except for the hypertensive patients, the researchers said.

"Our study showed the risk of the severity of Covid-19 infection in younger patients with underlying comorbidities were found to be relatively at higher risk of severity of disease as well as to mortality compared to elderly patients with similar underlying condition," said Dr Vivek Ranjan, co-author and Chairperson at the hospital’s Department of Blood Transfusion.

Out of the 2,586 patients, 779 (30.1%) needed ICU admission, whereas 1,807 (69.9%) did not require it.

About 2,269 (87.7%) recovered, while 317 (12.3%) patients died.A

"On comparing the impact of multiple comorbidities with the severity of COVID-19 infection, it was found that the presence of comorbidity poses a greater risk of ICU admission. As the number of comorbidities increases, the risk of severity of COVID-19 infection also increases significantly," said Dr. D.S. Rana, co-author and Chairperson, Department of Renal Sciences.

Source-IANS