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Release Date: April 29, 2003
SOCIAL FACTORS LOOM LARGE
IN MEN’S POOR HEALTH
By Becky Ham, Staff Writer
Health Behavior News Service
Social and behavioral factors may help explain why American men, especially low-income
and minority men, are less healthy than women in almost every way, according
to research in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
“Beliefs about masculinity and manhood that are deeply rooted in culture
and supported by social institutions play a role in shaping the behavioral
patters of men in ways that have consequences for health,” says David
R. Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University of Michigan.
Men have higher death rates for 14 of the 15 leading causes
of death in the United States (Alzheimer’s disease is the only exception)
and much higher rates of serious diseases like hypertension and cancer.
Men are also
twice
as likely as women to die from accidents, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver
and homicide, all of which have a social and behavioral component.
“Many of the stable and relatively universally noted [health] differences
between men and women are not biologically inevitable but are importantly shaped
by social arrangements,” Williams says.
Economic stress and unemployment, hazardous work conditions, poor personal
health and coping practices and poor access to health care are among the specific
health challenges examined in the issue:
- A striking
rise in heart disease deaths among middle-aged men in Eastern Europe
may be partially caused by the men’s inability to cope with economic
and social stresses brought on by the fall of communism, according to
research by Gerdi Weidner, Ph.D., of the Preventive Medicine Research
Institute and
Virginia S. Cain, Ph.D., of the National Institutes of Health. Behavioral
interventions that help the men cope with depression and avoid destructive
behaviors like
alcoholism are needed “across large populations experiencing dramatic
social change,” say the researchers.
- Studies that
examine how different groups of men use Medicare illustrate some of
the disparities in health care experienced by black men. Even when
health insurance and income differences are accounted for, black men
still receive fewer common surgical procedures like angioplasty and
fewer preventive
and screening services like flu shots and colonoscopies, according to
Marian E. Gornick, M.A.
“Sadly, the health status of African-American men may serve as the proverbial
canary in the coal mine for other poor men in this nation and in our global
village,” Henrie M. Treadwell, Ph.D., of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
writes in an accompanying editorial.
- A study of
304 black and white men suggests that most believe that regular prostate-specific
antigen screening tests can regularly identify
and lower
the death rate from prostate cancer, although most health professionals
remain undecided about the test’s effectiveness. Men in the study
did not know enough about PSA testing to give informed consent for
such screening,
according
to Evelyn C.Y. Chan, M.D., of the University of Texas-Houston Medical
School and colleagues.
- Accidents,
cancer, chronic liver disease and suicide are the leading causes of
death for American Indian and Alaskan Native men, whose death rates
at every
age are much higher than those of women in these groups, says Everett
R. Rhoades, M.D., of the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health.
American Indian
and Alaskan Native men are also less likely to seek medical help and
pursue risk-taking behaviors like binge drinking and poor safety belt
use. Loss of
cultural identity and traditional male roles may explain some of this
risk-taking behavior, according to Rhoades.
- Preliminary
studies suggest that smoking rates among Asian American and Pacific
Islander males are higher than rates in the general
U.S. male population,
but
there are very little data on tobacco use among the 50 or more ethnic
and language groups that make up this population. Rod Lew, M.P.H.,
of the Asian
Pacific
Partners for Empowerment and Leadership and Sora Park Tanjasiri, Dr.P.H.,
M.P.H., of the University of California, Irvine, say that public health
officials and
researchers should “view the tobacco epidemic as a global issue
and consider the growing tobacco industry influence in Asia, the Pacific
and
developing
countries around the world.”
Efforts to improve men’s health will have far-reaching
effects, according to Amos L. Smith, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., of the Community
Foundation for Greater
New Haven.
“Communities need men who are healthy, able to work, and able to contribute
to uplifting their families and communities. Poor health restricts one’s
capacity to consistently contribute,” Smith says.
These studies were supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the
Kellogg Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research
Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Legacy Foundation,
the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
# # #
Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.
Interviews: Contact David R. Williams at wildavid@umich.org or Henrie M. Treadwill
at hmt@wkkf.org.
American Journal of Public Health: (202) 777-2511 or www.ajph.org.
Center for the Advancement of Health
Contact: Ira R. Allen
Director of Public Affairs
202.387.2829
press@cfah.org
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