Arterial Hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus in COVID-19 Patients: What Is Known by Gender Differences?

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected >160 million people around the world. Hypertension (HT), chronic heart disease (CHD), and diabetes mellitus (DM) increase susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Aims: We designed this retrospective study to assess the gender differences in hypertensive diabetic SARS-CoV-2 patients. We reported data, by gender differences, on the inflammatory status, on the hospital stays, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, Rx and CT report, and therapy.

Methods: We enrolled 1014 patients with confirmed COVID-19 admitted into different Hospitals of Campania from 26 March to 30 June, 2020. All patients were allocated into two groups: diabetic-hypertensive group (DM-HT group) that includes 556 patients affected by diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension and the non-diabetic- non-hypertensive group (non-DM, non-HT group) comprising 458 patients. The clinical outcomes (i.e., discharges, mortality, length of stay, therapy, and admission to intensive care) were monitored up to June 30, 2020.

Results: We described, in the DM-HT group, higher proportion of cardiopathy ischemic (CHD) (47.5% vs. 14.8%, respectively; p < 0.0001) and lung diseases in females compared to male subjects (34.8% vs. 18.5%, respectively; p < 0.0001). In male subjects, we observed higher proportion of kidney diseases (CKD) (11% vs. 0.01%, respectively; p < 0.0001), a higher hospital stay compared to female subjects (22 days vs. 17 days, respectively, p < 0.0001), a higher admission in ICU (66.9% vs. 12.8%, respectively, p < 0.0001), and higher death rate (17.3% vs. 10.7%, respectively, p < 0.0001).

Conclusion: These data confirm that male subjects, compared to female subjects, have a higher hospital stay, a higher admission to ICU, and higher death rate.