<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection is causing mortality in considerable proportion of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients, however, evidence for the association of sex, age, and comorbidities on the risk of mortality is not well-aggregated yet. It was aimed to assess the association of sex, age, and comorbidities with mortality in COVID-2019 patients. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Literatures were searched using different keywords in various databases. Relative risks (RRs) were calculated by RevMan software where statistical significance was set as <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05. <b><i>Results:</i></b> COVID-19 male patients were associated with significantly increased risk of mortality compared to females (RR 1.86: 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.67–2.07; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001). Patients with age ≥50 years were associated with 15.4-folds significantly increased risk of mortality compared to patients with age &#x3c;50 years (RR 15.44: 95% CI 13.02–18.31; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001). Comorbidities were also associated with significantly increased risk of mortality; kidney disease (RR 4.90: 95% CI 3.04–7.88; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), cereborovascular disease (RR 4.78; 95% CI 3.39–6.76; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), cardiovascular disease (RR 3.05: 95% CI 2.20–4.25; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), respiratory disease (RR 2.74: 95% CI 2.04–3.67; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), diabetes (RR 1.97: 95% CI 1.48–2.64; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), hypertension (RR 1.95: 95% CI 1.58–2.40; <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.00001), and cancer (RR 1.89; 95% CI 1.25–2.84; <i>p</i> = 0.002) but not liver disease (RR 1.64: 95% CI 0.82–3.28; <i>p</i>= 0.16). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Implementation of adequate protection and interventions for COVID-19 patients in general and in particular male patients with age ≥50 years having comorbidities may significantly reduce risk of mortality associated with COVID-19.

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A set of indicators of women's empowerment and a composite index for measuring it is developed. Material, from journals, books and reports, were reviewed and eleven indicators of women's empowerment in the Bangladesh setting identified : mobility, decision making power, autonomy, ownership of household assets, freedom from domination, awareness, participation in public protests and political campaigns, contribution to family income, reproductive rights, exposure to information, and participation in development programmes. Under each of these indicators, a number of subindicators was considered. Composite empowerment indices were then developed to measure the overall level of empowerment of women in the context of Bangladesh. The uniqueness of this empowerment index is that it considers a wide range of empowerment indicators with appropriate weights. Composite empowerment indices have also been developed for different categories of indicators.