Average NZ bloke no picture of health

By ANGELA GREGORY health reporter

Gender-based approaches to health policies are unsympathetic to men and disadvantage them, according to researchers.

A study has found that while New Zealand men have higher disease and mortality rates than women, their health issues do not get the same amount of attention.

A senior lecturer at Auckland Medical School, Dr Felicity Goodyear-Smith, and the director of public policy evaluation at Massey University, Stuart Birks, argue policy makers focus on women's health to the exclusion of men's.

The study's authors said New Zealand had focused primarily on strategies relating to women's health.

In the past two decades there had been an increasing call for a gendered approach to healthcare policy and service delivery, which the authors believe was wrong.

"A needs rather than advocacy-driven public health policy directed at high-risk groups for specific health problems rather than specific populations may be a more efficient, equitable and effective means of disease prevention and treatment.

"In this paper we argue that while men and women may have different health needs with respect to particular health issues, a global gendered approach based on redressing the social oppression of women and their perceived healthcare disadvantages is likely to neglect the healthcare needs of men."

The researcher said there was a paucity of data on male health.

A Medline search for the years 1980 to 2002 found 7991 articles using the key words "women's health" compared to 179 using "men's health" with nearly a third or those relating to HIV infection.

Health policy materials implied women were deserving of special attention, with the implicit signal men were less important, with their contribution to family and community not valued.

The study said the denigration of qualities considered male, and elevation of characteristics considered female, did not acknowledge the contributions they made.

In a Ministry of Health report on mental health the chapter on women offered a sympathetic approach whereas that on men described attitudes critical of men or was blind to their needs.

The researchers said rather than expecting the nature of men to change, health providers should work to remove perceived barriers as they had done for women.

Special attention might be necessary to make health services male-friendly, such as after-work consulting hours, consulting in the work place, or taking services to "male settings" like sports clubs and bars.

At risk

* New Zealand men die significantly earlier than women.

In 1999-2001 men's life expectancy was 76 years, 4.9 years less than women's.

* Men die of heart disease and stroke at a greater rate than women, and have a higher cancer mortality rate.

* Men develop schizophrenia at a younger age and have a worse prognosis than women.

* The overall male suicide rate is almost four times that of women.

* Men have a significantly higher rate of death from avoidable causes than women.

* Men are likely to die younger from common diseases and to suffer illnesses in which environment and lifestyle play an important part.

* Men are more likely to work in high-risk occupations.

* Nearly twice as many men are murdered than women.