Sex-disaggregated data matters: tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the health of women and men

Sarah Hawkes (), Athena Pantazis (), Anna Purdie (), Abhishek Gautam, Sylvia Kiwuwa-Muyingo (), Kent Buse, Sonja Tanaka (), Kakoli Borkotoky, Sneha Sharma and Ravi Verma
Additional contact information
Sarah Hawkes: Institute for Global Health, UCL, and Global Health 50/50
Athena Pantazis: Independent Consultant To Global Health 50/50
Anna Purdie: Institute for Global Health, UCL, and Global Health 50/50
Abhishek Gautam: International Center for Research On Women
Sylvia Kiwuwa-Muyingo: African Population and Health Research Center
Kent Buse: The George Institute for Global Health and Global Health 50/50, University of New South Wales, Global Health 50/50
Sonja Tanaka: Global Health 50/50
Kakoli Borkotoky: International Center for Research On Women
Sneha Sharma: International Center for Research On Women
Ravi Verma: International Center for Research On Women

Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, 2022, vol. 39, issue 1, No 5, 55-73

Abstract: Abstract Sex and gender matter to health outcomes, but despite repeated commitments to sex-disaggregate data in health policies and programmes, a persistent and substantial absence of such data remains especially in lower-income countries. This represents a missed opportunity for monitoring and identifying gender-responsive, evidence-informed solutions to address a key driver of the pandemic. In this paper we review the availability of national sex-disaggregated surveillance data on COVID-19 and examine trends on the testing-to-outcome pathway. We further analyse the availability of data according to the economic status of the country and investigate the determinants of sex differences, including the national gender inequality status (according to a global index) in each country. Results are drawn from 18 months of global data collection from over 200 countries. We find differences in COVID-19 prevention behaviours and illness outcomes by sex, with lower uptake of vaccination and testing plus an elevated risk of severe disease and death among men. Supporting and maintaining the collection, collation, interpretation and presentation of sex-disaggregated data requires commitment and resources at subnational, national and global levels, but provides an opportunity for identifying and taking gender-responsive action on health inequities. As a first step the global health community should recognise, value and support the importance of sex-disaggregated data for identifying and tackling an inequitable pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Sex-disaggregated data; Gender inequality; Health inequity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 I15 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40888-021-00254-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:epolit:v:39:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s40888-021-00254-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40888

DOI: 10.1007/s40888-021-00254-4

Access Statistics for this article

Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics is currently edited by Alberto Quadrio Curzio

More articles in Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics from Springer, Fondazione Edison
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().