Men’s health literacy: a review and recommendations

Abstract

Although men’s health promotion efforts have attracted programmatic and evaluative research, conspicuously absent are gendered insights to men’s health literacy. The current scoping review article shares the findings drawn from 12 published articles addressing men’s health literacy in a range of health and illness contexts. Evident was consensus that approaches tailored to men’s everyday language and delivered in familiar community-based spaces were central to advancing men’s health literacy, and, by extension, the effectiveness of men’s health promotion programs. However, most men’s health literacy studies focussed on medical knowledge of disease contexts including prostate and colon cancers, while diversity was evident regards conceptual frameworks and/or methods and measures for evaluating men’s health literacy. Despite evidence that low levels of health literacy fuel stigma and men’s reticence for health help-seeking, and that tailoring programs to health literacy levels is requisite to effective men’s health promotion efforts, the field of men’s health literacy remains underdeveloped. Based on the scoping review findings, recommendations for future research include integrating men’s health literacy research as a needs analysis to more effectively design and evaluate targeted men’s health promotion programs.

Health Literacy Among Canadian Men Experiencing Prostate Cancer

“…To our knowledge, the HLQ has previously been used only with a small sample of Danish men (n = 8) diagnosed with prostate cancer (Kayser et al, 2015), as well as one cross-sectional study of Australian men (n = 565) with prostate cancer (Goodwin et al, 2018). Although it is widely understood that education level and health literacy levels are related (Canadian Council on Learning, 2008;Rootman & Ronson, 2005), there is an absence of research focused on the interconnections between men's health literacy and intersecting social determinants of health (Oliffe et al, 2018). Furthermore, low health literacy is considered a risk factor for poor health outcomes, and such outcomes can also be argued as stemming from health inequities (Volandes & Paasche-Orlow, 2007).…”

“…Health literacy is directly linked to health outcomes (American Medical Association, 1999) and to behavioral predictors of health, such as physical activity (Al Sayah, Johnson, & Vallance, 2016;Geboers, de Winter, Luten, Jansen, & Reijneveld, 2014). Yet, despite consensus that health literacy is an important determinant of men's health outcomes, Saunders (2009, 2011) and Oliffe et al (2018) assert that the field of men's health literacy is underdeveloped. This gap is especially disconcerting given sex differences research that consistently connects being male with lower health literacy levels compared to females (Canadian Council on Learning, 2008;von Wagner, Knight, Steptoe, & Wardle, 2007;White, Chen, & Atchison, 2008).…”

Advancing gender equ(al)ity, lifting men’s health: dealing with the spirit of our time

“…10 In men, disease-coping strategies and mortality rates are also related to having less access than women to health services, especially in primary care, as well as having lower participation rates in preventive or health-promoting initiatives, 6 23 which also leads to lower health literacy. 25 26 Thus, the social expectations and stereotypes regarding behaviours that are considered appropriate are embedded within a gender order; an illustrative example is that showing no sign of vulnerability is considered a trait of manhood, leading many men to not ask for help. 21 27 As a result, gender establishes many priorities that act as barriers to accessing health resources, which increases the risk of premature mortality in men.…”

Study protocol: evaluation of sheds for life (SFL): a community-based men’s health initiative designed “for shedders by shedders” in Irish Men’s sheds using a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design

“…Paradoxically, these same groups are frequently the least likely to engage with health promoting initiatives [ 3 , 4 ]. Early research into men’s health highlighted men’s avoidance of health promotion and health services as a consequence of aligning to more traditional traits of masculinity such as stoicism, self-reliance and competiveness [ 5 ]. More recently, the focus has shifted to positioning gender within a wider social determinants of health or intersectional context to better understand how gendered patterns of health behaviours are shaped by particular environmental, economic and socio-cultural contexts [ 6 ].…”