IDF21-0474 Gender differences in the incidence of Covid 19 among young men and women with and without diabetes in Chennai, India

ABSTRACT

Background: In this study, we are focussing on gender differences in occurrence of COVID 19 in young patients with diabetes and without diabetes. Aim: 1. To find out gender differences in the age of COVID 19 patients with and without diabetes. 2. To find out the gender difference in the frequency of Covid 19 in patients with and without diabetes.Table 1.Table 2.Table 3.Method: All patients admitted to Voluntary Health Services (VHS) with confirmed COVID-19 from May 2020 - May 2021 were included. All patients with COVID 19 were classified into two categories as Covid with diabetes and Covid without diabetes. Age was categorized into five groups. The data was retrieved from the hospital medical records and recorded in excel files for further statistical analysis. Results: Out of 945 patients who had Covid, 497(52.6%) were having diabetes and 448(47.4) did not. Of the patients with diabetes, 179(36.1%) were women and 318(63.9%) were men respectively. Men have been more affected than women among persons with and without diabetes. However, among Covid 19 patients below age 25 years without diabetes, twice as many women have been affected compared to men. This has major public health significance in terms of educating women of reproductive age about vaccination and other prevention strategies. Discussion: Our study establishes that COVID 19 infections have been more common in younger women compared to men, even in the absence of non-communicable diseases like diabetes. Further research is required to focus on the factors that have made young women more vulnerable to COVID 19 infection.