Age and gender-based differences in Covid-19 clinical features and management: A cross sectional study

Masud, R.; Anwar, M. Z.; Gardezi, S. A. A.; Ur Rehman, M.; Rafique, I.; Asad, A.; Ul Islam Hashmi, M. R.; Shoaib, S.; Hashmi, S. N.; Laique, T.

Background: The whole world is facing one of the biggest health related disaster (COVID-19) of the century. Aim: To identify age and gender-based differences in Covid-19 clinical features and its management among patients at government hospitals, Pakistan. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Methodology: This study with enrolled subjects (n=206) was carried out after ethical review committee's (ERC) approval at Life Diabetes Centre, Gujrat and CMH Kharian Medical College (CKMC), over a period of 3 months, Kharian-Pakistan. Both male and female medical subjects were enrolled. Statistical analysis: Data was analyzed by SPSS software, version 17. Parameters like age, gender and treatment taken were presented as frequency. Chi square was applied to see the correlation with p-value <0.05 as significant. Results: Total 206 patients were randomly selected, 89 male and 117 females. Among 206, patients (n=133) showed symptoms while rest of the patients (73) remained asymptomatic. There was no association of age and gender with COVID-19 symptoms having P-value greater than 0.05. There was a significant association between treatments given was significantly related with age having P-value (0.006*). Conclusion: We concluded that there was no strong association between age and gender-based differences in Covid-19 clinical features;this could be due to small sample size.