A study utilizing wearable device data indicates that men with COVID-19 infections are prone to elevated heart and breathing rates, along with higher skin temperatures, compared to women.

The study, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, showed that men and women experience different physiological responses to Covid infections, and it may explain why mortality among men was higher during the pandemic.

Exploring Sex-Specific Responses to COVID-19

“The sex-specific biological responses to Covid infection may be linked to the higher mortality and hospitalization rates observed in male Covid-19 patients,” said researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland. “A better understanding of sex-specific trajectories in these physiological changes could support the early detection and treatment of Covid-19,” they added.

In the study, the team collected data on 82 people with the Ava wearable medical device. More than 1.5 million hours of physiological data were recorded and included in the new analysis during the study period, spanning 2020 and 2021.

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Men had a higher susceptibility to developing COVID-19, with a 2.4 times greater risk of death compared to women.

Further, the team also tested BMI, age, hypertension, and alcohol and drug use, and found no impact of these variables on the associations between sex and physiology during infection. However, they could not account for hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle among female participants.

The researchers called for more work to fully understand the biological underpinning of these sex differences.

Source-IANS