COVID-19 and the increasing need for sex-disaggregated mortality data in Canada and worldwide

Abstract

In countries most impacted by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), such as Italy and China, surveillance reveals that the number of deaths differ by sex Preliminary data suggest that while the distributions of cases vary by sex, men represent the larger proportion of deaths in these countries Analyses of deaths can indicate differential disease progression between men and women more robustly than analyses of cases, as the former are less susceptible to biases of underreporting and bottlenecks in testing Canada has an enormous opportunity to apply its sex-specific mortality data to conduct comprehensive health and medical research that captures sex-based differences in manifestation of the disease to improve outcomes and prevention methods During the ongoing pandemic, it is difficult for complete and wholly accurate data of all COVID-19 deaths to be obtained when healthcare and public health personnel are operating at full capacity However, it is crucial that efforts continue to be made to capture this information and make it accessible, as it can also be applied to inform implementation of more effective and equitable public health and clinical strategies, such as the dissemination of targeted health communication materials and therapy