Unmarried Men With Lower Income at Increased Death Risk from COVID-19

Men having a lower income, level of education, not being married, and born in low-or middle-income countries have an elevated risk of dying from COVID-19, warn researchers.

"We can show that there are independent effects of various separate risk factors that have been brought up in debates and news about Covid-19," said study author Sven Drefahl from Stockholm University in Sweden.

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‘Being a man, having a lower income and lower level of education also result in a strongly elevated risk of dying from COVID-19.’

"All of these factors are accordingly individually associated with a strongly elevated risk of dying from Covid-19," Drefahl added.

The study is based on data from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on all registered deaths from Covid-19 in Sweden for adults aged 20 and older.

In a study, published in the journal Nature Communications, Drefahl explained that those born abroad generally have lower mortality than people born in Sweden.

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This also applies when the research took income and level of education into account.

The elevated risk of dying from Covid-19 for this group remains after the researchers controlled for circumstances, such as income and level of education.

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As to these aspects, this also agrees with the patterns for mortality from other diseases.

The findings showed that men had more than twice as high a risk of dying from Covid-19 than women.

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Unmarried men and women (including those never married, widows/widowers and the divorced) had a 1.5-2 times as high risk of dying from Covid-19 as those who were married.

According to the researchers, men generally have higher mortality at comparable ages, which is considered to be due to a combination of biology and lifestyle.

"The fact that people with little education or a low income have higher mortality may largely be due to lifestyle factors, including finances -- how much one can afford to prioritise one's health," said study author Gunnar Andersson

"Similarly, we can explain the elevated mortality from Covid-19 for these groups," Andersson added.

A number of earlier studies have also shown that single and unmarried people have higher mortality from various diseases, the research team noted.

Source-IANS