Sex differences in COVID-19 deaths in the early months of the pandemic in Canada: An examination with an immigration lens.

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an overrepresentation of males in COVID-19 deaths worldwide, with Canada reporting more female COVID-19 deaths. This paper examines the overrepresentation of female COVID-19 deaths in Canada, with an immigration lens.

Data and methods: Data were extracted from the COVID-19 Sex-Disaggregated Data Tracker to compare the sex distribution of COVID-19 deaths in Canada with that of other countries. A linkage of deaths to the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) allows for the comparison of sex-specific COVID-19 death rates by immigrant status for age and geography, as well as by major employment sector among immigrants, using the tax data from the IMDB.

Results: While there were proportionately more female than male COVID-19 deaths in Canada in the early months of the pandemic, this trend was mainly a phenomenon among non-immigrants aged 85 and older. In addition, COVID-19-specific death rates for males were higher than those for females across age groups by immigrant status, except for those aged 85 and older among the non-immigrant population. Among immigrants, the death rate among health care and social assistance workers was higher among males than among females (10.7 vs. 2.9 per 100,000 population). The initially observed overrepresentation of female COVID-19 deaths to male COVID-19 deaths in Canada evened out in the summer of 2021.

Interpretation: The higher proportion of female COVID-19 deaths was likely related to the high concentration of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities, where a lower institutionalization rate for immigrants had been observed. Since the implementation of vaccination targeting long-term care facility residents in Canada, the overrepresentation of female COVID-19 deaths ceased.