Women hit harder by virus in Quebec, statistics show
More women than men are testing positive for COVID-19 and dying from the illness in Quebec, confirming a general pattern in Canada but seemingly bucking the world trend.
As of this past weekend, 59.6 per cent of the 37,721 confirmed cases in Quebec were in women. Women also accounted for 54.1 per cent of the 2,928 COVID-19 deaths reported in the province on the weekend.
The Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) posts the COVID-19 case numbers, age breakdown and gender breakdown at inspq.qc.ca.
Elsewhere, researchers are trying to understand why men appear to be dying at a higher rate from COVID -19 than women.
Initial research suggests a higher smoking rate among men plays a role, along with behavioural factors. Some studies indicate that men are less likely to wash their hands, for example, and less likely to seek medical care or heed public health advice.
Global Health 50/50 in the United Kingdom, which has been compiling data on COVID -19 cases around the world, shows a higher proportion of deaths in men among confirmed cases.
Among countries offering separate data for women and men in Global Health 50/50’s COVID-19 data tracker, the number that are reporting a higher proportion of men among confirmed COVID -19 cases is about equal to the number reporting a higher proportion of women among confirmed cases.
Canada fits into the latter category, with women making up 55 per cent of confirmed cases and 53 per cent of deaths from COVID -19. Women make up 50.4 per cent of the population of Canada.
So why is there an even greater proportion of women among cases and deaths in Quebec?
Women tend to outlive men. However, it’s not a given that aging explains why women are overrepresented among those testing positive for COVID -19 in the province.
More than half of Quebecers who are confirmed with COVID -19 are 30 to 69 years old. The largest number of cases is in the 40-to-49 age group.
The INSPQ doesn’t offer the gender breakdown by age category, so it’s impossible to know what proportion of women under the age of 69 have tested positive for COVID-19, or even whether they outnumber men.
Still, occupation might make women more susceptible to infection in Quebec.
Seventy per cent of the paid and unpaid global health care workforce are women, according to data
cited by the Institute of Gender and Health and the United Nations Population Fund.
Yet the proportion is greater in Quebec, where 80 per cent of those employed in health care — and therefore on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic — are women, says the largest union representing the province’s health care workers, the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN).
Age, meanwhile, appears to be a key factor in the overall number of women dying from COVID-19 in Quebec.
Women make up 57.5 per cent of the Quebec population over 75 years old. Their proportion only climbs with age.
As well, Quebec’s long-term care facilities and private nursing homes, where women make up more than three-quarters of residents aged 85 years and older, are hard hit by COVID-19.
The INSPQ reports that 40.1 per cent of those who have died from COVID -19 in the province were 80 to 89 years old, and 33.6 per cent were over 90.
Still, Quebec’s high infection rate and death rate in seniors’ residences might be masking a different trend in the younger population that is infected with COVID-19.
Without a breakdown of COVID -19 cases and deaths by sex in each age category, it’s impossible to know whether global concerns about a higher fatality rate among men is something Quebecers living outside of nursing homes should worry about as well.