3 07 Mens Health

Summary

• Across the UK there is a difference of over 14 years in male life expectancy, depending on where you live
• Under the Equality Act 2010, as a general practitioner (GP) you have a legal requirement to deliver services in such a way that they do not result in direct or indirect discrimination against one sex or the other
• Men are more likely than women to die prematurely – 42% of men die before age 75 compared to 26% of women
• Men are 67% more likely than women to die from those cancers that are not specific to one sex or the other. Men are also 56% more likely to develop those cancers and have poorer survival rates
• 76% of people who kill themselves are men
• Men’s mental and emotional health problems often emerge in different ways from women’s and are not always textbook cases; boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed as having a behavioural, emotional or social difficulty
• 65% of men are overweight or obese compared with 58% of women, but most weight-loss services attract mostly women
• Men tend to have less healthy lifestyles than women; for example, men are more likely to drink alcohol to excess, more likely to smoke, have a poorer diet, more sexually transmitted infections and higher HIV rates; they also take more illegal drugs and have more accidents
• GP services are used 20% less by men than women; pharmacy services are used even less by men