Background and Objective:
In the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario, it is necessary to understand if gender differences exist in terms of patients’ characteristics and clinical outcomes. Here, we explore gender-differences in the pre-existing medical conditions, and evaluate how they might affect the risk of death among COVID-19 patients.

Methods:
We used data from the MASSI (“Modelli innovativi per l’Analisi dati della Sorveglianza Sanitaria Integrata COVID-19”) study, which integrates surveillance data obtained from the Provincial Health Authority of Catania and the national surveillance system coordinated by the Italian National Institute of Health. The analysis was conducted on 1424 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from February 2020 to December 2021 in Catania (Italy), and included patients with at least one medical condition - cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), HIV infection, chronic neurological, respiratory, corneal, kidney and liver diseases, diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic diseases.

Results:
Compared to females, males were younger, more likely to exhibit diabetes (p"