Unmarried men at higher death risk from Covid: Study

London: Being a man, having a lower income, a lower level of education, not being married, and being born in low-or middle-income countries - these are factors that relate to an elevated risk of dying from Covid-19, warn researchers./>/>'We can show that there are independent effects of various separate risk factors that have been brought up in debates and news about Covid-19,' said study author Sven Drefahl from Stockholm University in Sweden./>/>'All of these factors are accordingly individually associated with a strongly elevated risk of dying from Covid-19,' Drefahl added./>/>The study is based on data from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on all registered deaths from Covid-19 in Sweden for adults aged 20 and older. In a study, published in the journal Nature Communications, Drefahl explained that those born abroad generally have lower mortality than people born in Sweden./>/>This also applies when the research took income and level of education into account./>/>The elevated risk of dying from Covid-19 for this group remains after the researchers controlled for circumstances, such as income and level of education./>/>The study shows that being a man, having a lower income and lower level of education also result in a strongly elevated risk of dying from Covid-19. As to these aspects, this also agrees with the patterns for mortality from other diseases./>/>The findings showed that men had more than twice as high a risk of dying from Covid-19 than women./>/>Unmarried men and women (including those never married, widows/widowers, and the divorced) had a 1.5-2 times as high risk of dying from Covid-19 as those who were married./>/>According to the researchers, men generally have higher mortality at comparable ages, which is considered to be due to a combination of biology and lifestyle./>/>'The fact that people with little education or a low income have higher mortality may largely be due to lifestyle factors, including finances -- how much one can afford to prioritise one's health,' said study author Gunnar Andersson/>/>'Similarly, we can explain the elevated mortality from Covid-19 for these groups,' Andersson added./>/>A number of earlier studies have also shown that single and unmarried people have higher mortality from various diseases, the research team noted. --IANS