SECOND OPINION:Men have more demands on their health than women, writes JACKY JONES
MEN ARE regarded as a privileged sector of society but this privilege does not seem to extend to their health status. The first State of Men’s Health in Europe report published this week shows that premature death rates across the EU are much higher for men than women in all age groups. In fact, 630,000 men die every year aged between 15 and 64 compared with 300,000 women. Young men are four times more likely to die than women of the same age. Men die sooner from cancers that should affect men and women equally. Men account for 95 per cent of fatal accidents and 75 per cent of non-fatal accidents in the workplace.
Men’s health in Ireland is as bad as in the rest of Europe, and getting worse, with a recent survey showing that the greatest increase in obesity is in men age 51-64, where 86 per cent are overweight or obese. Men’s poorer health status is related to gender inequalities and the stereotypical roles they have thrust upon them by society. If this inequality applied to any other group in Ireland, we would be jumping up and down demanding a public investigation.
Men’s Health Week runs from June 13th to 19th. This year’s theme – Let’s Talk – was selected because men find it hard to talk about health and personal issues. Theories to explain their poorer health are that men don’t seek help early enough, engage in risky “macho” behaviours, and are irresponsible about their health. Men are thought to be less well informed about and less interested in health issues. All of this implies that men are to blame for their own poor health whereas the truth is much more complex than that.
Men’s health, like the health of women and children, is determined by factors outside the health system such as education level attained, occupation, and the quality of their relationships. The Central Statistics Office’s Women and Men in Ireland 2010 report lists some of the main reasons for the differences in health status between men and women in Ireland. This report highlights how boys miss out on a full educational experience, with 14 per cent of them leaving school early compared with 8 per cent of girls. Men have higher unemployment levels (17 per cent) than women (10 per cent) and are more badly affected by unemployment because they are still expected to be the “breadwinners”.
Men work much longer hours than women and have less time to spend with their families. When couples separate, men are more likely to lose contact with their children and face the future alone. Men are 20 times more likely to work in occupations that have the most work-related disabilities such as construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and other craft-related industries. More than half a million women in Ireland still consider looking after home and family as their main occupation compared with just 7,500 men.
The only conclusion we can come to from these reports is that men’s work is more demanding on their health than women’s work. Put another way, men’s health is consumed by their jobs if they have one and by unemployment if they don’t.
There is a curious paradox here. Men are still the principal decision makers in Ireland and somehow have managed to construct a society where their own health and that of boys has got lost in translation. Men’s privileged and prominent position at all levels of society has led to a “taken for granted” attitude to their health, which has had very negative consequences. The category of “men” is conspicuous by its absence at EU and member state policy or action level.
Ireland is the only member state with a National Men’s Health Policy 2008-2013. Unfortunately, this policy was published at the start of the recession and now there is no money to implement it. The bankers, developers and decision-makers who brought about the recession, and are mostly men, have been hoist by their own petard. No one is laughing at this ironic situation because every man in poor health has family and friends who are affected as well.
The only way to achieve health for both sexes is to have a fair and equal society. A good start would be if we all worked a mandatory 30 hours a week which would get rid of unemployment overnight. Yes, “let’s talk” but let’s have men and women talking together and not just men talking to men. It is time for a new Men’s Lib movement and a revival of Women’s Lib to achieve health for all.
Dr Jacky Jones is a former regional manager of health promotion with the HSE