Men’s Health Equity

A Handbook

Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce, Roland J. Thorpe, Jr., Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce, Roland J. Thorpe, Jr.

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138052970
• eBook ISBN: 9781351682930
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Public Health, Administration & Care
• Index: Psychology

Worldwide, men have more opportunities, privileges, and power, yet they also have shorter life expectancies than women. Why is this? Why are there stark differences in the burden of disease, quality of life, and length of life amongst men, by race, ethnicity, (dis)ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, rurality, and national context? Why is this a largely unexplored area of research? Men's Health Equity is the first volume to describe men's health equity as a field of study that emerged from gaps in and between research on men's health and health inequities.

This handbook provides a comprehensive review of foundations of the field; summarizes the issues unique to different populations; discusses key frameworks for studying and exploring issues that cut across populations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Central America, and South America; and offers strategies for improving the health of key population groups and achieving men's health equity overall. This book systematically explores the underlying causes of these differences, describes the specific challenges faced by particular groups of men, and offers policy and programmatic strategies to improve the health and well-being of men and pursue men's health equity. Men's Health Equity will be the first collection to present the state of the science in this field, its progress, its breadth, and its future.

This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, researchers, students, and professionals interested in men's health equity, men's health, psychology of men's health, gender studies, public health, and global health.

Part I

Psychosocial and Developmental Foundations of Men’s Health Equity

1

Introduction

Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce, and Roland J. Thorpe Jr.

In most industrialized societies across the globe, men tend to have more opportunities, privileges, and power yet shorter life expectancies than women (Baker et al., 2014; Thorpe, Griffith, Gilbert, Elder, & Bruce, 2016). Although this difference is now seen as normal, it is a relatively recent phenomenon that emerged in the late 1800s (Beltrán-Sánchez, Finch, & Crimmins, 2015) and grew throughout the 20th century and into the new millennium. The Industrial Revolution, the advent of public health as a discipline, advances in medicine, and myriad social, economic, and health policy changes led to dramatic improvements in health across the world. Simultaneously, these technological advances also led to the emergence and persistence of sex differences in life expectancy and premature mortality. The recent emergence of sex differences in life expectancy is a fundamental conundrum underlying calls for the recognition of men’s health as an area of specialization (Meryn & Shabsigh, 2009; Porche, 2007). While there has been little sustained effort by policymakers or practitioners to improve men’s health in the United States or across the globe (Baker et al., 2014), there have been a number of milestones achieved in the effort to raise attention of men’s health as a global issue.

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of professional organizations (e.g., the Global Action on Men’s Health, the International Society of Men’s Health, the American Society of Men’s Health, the European Men’s Health Forum), professional journals (e.g., the American Journal of Men’s Health, the International Journal of Men’s Health, the Journal of Men’s Health, the International Journal of Men’s Social and Community Health), and reports (e.g., the American Psychological Association’s Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic and Sexual Minority Boys and Men, The European Commission’s The State of Men’s Health in Europe, Promundo’s Masculine Norms and Men’s Health: Making the Connections) that has raised awareness of and attention to men’s health. Even in journals that are not focused on men’s health, there have been several special issues on the topic. For example, special issues have been dedicated to men’s health (Crawshaw & Smith, 2009; Gough, 2013; Robertson & White, 2011), biopsychosocial determinants of the health of boys and men (Thorpe, & Halkitis, 2016), diabetes and men’s health issues (Jack, 2004), and patterns and causes of men’s health outcomes (Graham & Gracia, 2012; Treadwell & Ro, 2003; Treadwell, Young, & Rosenberg, 2012). In different ways, these issues have helped to highlight the heterogeneity among determinants of men’s health outcomes, and refine how researchers, practitioners, and policy makers approach efforts to conceptualize and improve men’s health. In addition to these scholarly efforts, important policy initiatives have focused explicitly on improving men’s health in Australia, Brazil, Ireland, and elsewhere. Although men’s health is emerging as a field across the globe, little of this work systematically examines or addresses the heterogeneity among men. While efforts continue to raise the profile and understanding of men’s health as a field of research, policy, and practice, there also is a need to build an area of study that focuses on men whose determinants and patterns of health may not exactly align with a singular notion of men’s health.

How Do We Define the Field of Men’s Health Equity?

Health equity has been defined as the absence of systematic disparities in health and the determinants of health (Minority Health & Health Disparities Research & Education Act, 2000), and the principle underlying a commitment to eliminate social determinants of health and disparities in health (Braveman, 2014). Braveman (2014) argues that social justice is at the heart of the concept of health equity but it is unclear what data are driving a focus on health equity when men, across the globe, live shorter and often sicker lives than women. Whether measured by rates of premature mortality (World Health Organization, 2014), age standardized death rates in leading causes of death (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases) (World Health Organization, 2014), life expectancy (National Center for Health Statistics, 2018), or mortality (Bilal & Diez-Roux, 2018), the finding that men fare worse on many health outcomes than women has been a persistent pattern across the world but this difference is not considered a health disparity or inequity.

Braveman (2006) argues that “the gender disparity in life expectancy is, albeit an important public health issue, not an appropriate health disparities issue, because in this particular case it is the a priori disadvantaged group—women—who experiences better health” (p. 186). Recent definitions of health disparities from Healthy People 2020 and others have explicitly included the notion that disparities refer to populations whose health are worse based on some social disadvantage or characteristics historically linked to discrimination (Braveman, 2014). The fundamental problem with this notion is that it does not consider that groups can be advantaged based on one characteristic (e.g., gender) but disadvantaged based on another (e.g., sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, gender identity, educational attainment). This has been a particular problem in garnering attention and resources to focus on the health of men who improve the health of men who account for much of the sex difference in mortality globally (Young, 2009; Young, Meryn, & Treadwell, 2008): men who are advantaged by their sex or gender but marginalized by race, ethnicity, immigration status, sexual orientation, and other socially meaningful factors...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Foreword or Series Editor Introduction
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I Psychosocial and Developmental Foundations of Men’s Health Equity
• PART II Environmental, Social, and Policy Determinants of Men’s Health Inequities
• PART III Health Behaviors and Health Outcomes
• PART IV Men’s Health Inequities in the United States
• PART V Men’s Health Inequities Across the Globe
• PART VI Final Thoughts and Future Directions
• Afterword by Lisa Bowleg
• Conclusion by Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce, and Roland J. Thorpe, Jr.y
• Index