Survival Skills
This would help explain men's attitudes toward their doctors. If they have a doctor, that is: A survey in 2002 showed that a quarter of men ages 45 to 64 don't even have a physician. Again, this probably has to do with resistance to conceding that one is vulnerable, flawed in some way. But it also may reflect a certain arrogance. Kaiser, who consulted with labor unions for years, recalls talking with a factory worker, a smoker, who dismissed the idea of going to a doctor with this comment: "I am not going to have some snot-nosed kid running my life." Whether the cause is stoicism or anger, many men are probably leaving very treatable disorders undiagnosed because they avoid doctors' offices until their bodies are in some kind of crisis.
So how to change this? Altering men's perilous attitudes and lifestyles is difficult but not impossible, says Will Courtenay, founder of Men's Health Consulting in Berkeley, Calif. The first step, he says, is to get out the message--especially to medical practitioners and HMOs--that they cannot expect men to behave like women. Women seek out and gobble up any information offered them about their health, while men will accept the pamphlets and toss them in the nearest trash bin as soon as they leave the doctor's office.
But that's the macho indoctrination talking. In fact, says Courtenay, many men, despite being socialized to think help-seeking is uncool, secretly are very concerned about being healthy and living for a long time. What is needed is an ambitious social marketing campaign--like the successful anti-binge-drinking campaign on college campuses--to get out this message: that men's devil-may-care attitude can be changed. "But it's not enough for doctors to leave a copy of Sports Illustrated in the waiting room," Courtenay says. "We need to really convince men that health is manly."
Dying Like a Man
Almost 1.2 million U.S. males die each year. The five leading reasons account for more than half of that total, and guys could do a lot to reduce it.
[chart labels]
Number of deaths per year (top causes)
Heart disease 340,933
Cancer 288,768
Unintentional injuries 69,257
Stroke 62,622
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 60,713
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004
USN&WR
More information about heart disease, cancer, and other health matters can be found at www.usnews.com/health
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