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

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.