‘I send the wife to the doctor’– Men's behaviour as health consumers

Abstract

This paper explores men's behaviour and attitudes in relation to health matters. While there has been some practical and research progress in engaging with users of health services, there is less development in the area of engaging non-users. In effect, all members of the society can be the consumers/users of health promotion, though not all are. This paper reports on the first stage of a wider project aimed at increasing the effectiveness of skin cancer awareness messages aimed at men. The project focuses on men over 50 from an area of socio-economic disadvantage, since these men tend to have the lowest life expectancies in general, and the highest incidences of mortality for skin cancer both at a national and international level. The research was conducted through community-based focus groups and while the sample was relatively, small it produced some interesting outcomes in terms of how this cohort audited and responded to public health promotion campaigns; how they perceive cancer and health issues in general; how they respond to health issues; and how they view both the public health service in Ireland and the ways health professionals relate to them. It confirms many theories about how men view their health and how they respond to health promotion campaigns. Among other points, it raises questions about the possible mixed benefits of testimonial-based advertising. It also indicates that there may be further layers of complexity connected to identity, fatalism, problem solving and respectful treatment that have not been sufficiently articulated in the literature. It points to the need for greater engagement by service planners and providers with the needs of their target audience, which may require a more encompassing definition of service user. Skin cancer, men over 50 and riskAccording to the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (2007) nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in Ireland, and melanoma skin cancer is the eighth most common cancer. Melanoma incidence has shown the second highest rate of increase for a cancer in Ireland at 3.3% and mortality rates from melanoma have shown the highest increase at 4.2%. O'Lorcain et al. (2006) predict that in the next 10 years, there will be a 53% increase in the incidence rates in women and 75% in men.

Psychosocial factors that influence men's help‐seeking for cancer symptoms: a systematic synthesis of mixed methods research

“…Conformity to masculine gender role norms and perceived gender differences in health appeared to be important barriers to men's help‐seeking, which is consistent with the wider health‐related help‐seeking literature . A considerable number of men indicated that masculine gender role norms influence decisions to seek help for medical symptoms.…”

“…Moreover, some men reported a previous negative experience with the healthcare system , or a low level of previous contact with the system . Financial cost was a barrier in one study .…”

“…Psychosocial barriers to help-seeking Knowledge and awareness of cancer symptoms were associated with men's help-seeking behaviour, with a low level of cancer awareness or knowledge associated with delayed help-seeking for cancer symptoms in 12 studies [6,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. This barrier was found across a range of cancer samples, including prostate [34,36,41], testicular [6,32,38], male breast [35], and head and neck [33] cancer.…”

Psychometric properties of Liverpool Stoicism Scale (LSS) in a cohort of patients with resected cancer in adjuvant treatment

“…an individual who suffers intense pain, but doesn't show it). Several investigations have suggested that measuring this construct could be useful in certain clinical contexts (Buckley & Ó Tuama, 2010;George & Fleming, 2004;Moore, Grime, Campbell, & Richardson, 2013;Murray et al, 2008;O'Brien, Hunt, & Hart, 2005;Yong, 2006). Hence, better characterization of stoical patients would enable more efficacious strategies to be designed for interventions such as decision-making in oncology.…”

Use of Practitioner‐Based and Self‐Care Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States: A Demand for Health Perspective

“…Gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, and health behaviors will influence use of CAM. Females in general tend to be more interested in health and nutrition issues (Nayga, ), are more likely to engage in health‐seeking behavior (Buckley & Tuama, ), and are more frequent users of CAM than males (Montalto et al., ; Wellman, Kelner & Wigdor, ). In this study, women are hypothesized to be more likely than men to use CAM.…”