How to change the stats!

National statistics on life expectancy for men conclude: “the lives of men and women are becoming increasingly similar, but in the key areas of health, family and the labour market, there are still notable differences.

“There are more women than men and women live longer. However, women spend more years in poor health than men. Similar proportions of men and women are obese, but men are more likely to be overweight. Men are also more likely to be single, while more women are divorced, widowed or are lone parents. Girls continue to outperform boys in school. Although a greater proportion of men than women are in employment, women are more likely to work part time. While women still earn less than men, the pay gap is narrowing. Most of the responsibility for household chores and childcare still falls to women.”

So far, so predictable; but what about the health of the males of our nation?

• The average UK male life expectancy at birth is currently 75.3 years. But men in higher managerial jobs (78.5 years) can expect to live three and half year longer than men in manual work.
  
• Men take risks. Two in five (39%) drink too much. More than one in four (28%) smoke and one in three younger men (35%) use illegal drugs.
  
• Diagnoses of both prostate and testicular cancer are up since the early 1990s. Men are now more likely than women to be mentally ill.
  
• Men are increasingly unlikely to consult a doctor.
  
• Compared to the wider population, Indian, Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Irish men are at greater risk of heart disease and stroke.
  
• Men in routine and manual jobs are more likely to smoke and have chronic health problems than other men.

And if you want to know how these stats compare with those for women, comparative statistics show that:

• Men are twice as likely as women both to develop, and to die from, the ten most common cancers affecting both sexes.
  
• Men (65.4%) are significantly more likely than women (55.5%) to be overweight or obese more likely to suffer from the consequences including cancer, coronary heart disease and metabolic syndrome.
  
• Across the whole of adult life, mortality rates are higher for men than women for all the major causes of death.
  
• Three times as many men die from suicide.
  
• Pedestrian accidents are the leading cause of accidental death and serious injury to children.Boys are twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured in this way than girls.
  
• In 2004, 2110 boys died under the age of five from all causes compared to 1710 girls.
  
• 60% of sudden infant deaths occur in boys.

These statistics cover the UK, but as stated, Scottish men tend to be unhealthier than their southern counterparts generally. We don’t have a great reputation for looking after ourselves, however, attitudes towards men’s health and work in the field of improving it are moving ahead at a very encouraging rate. Reading this as a man, you may may feel somewhat downhearted, but you should take heart that improvements are being seen and take a decision to improve your own lifestyle.

Make the change: think about your lifestyle and see how you can improve it and fight the odds. Smokers, give up. Drinkers, cut down. Eat more healthily, exercise more. Easy to say, harder to carry out of course but help is at hand.

One avenue is through the Keep Well health checks - free health checks for people aged 45 to 64 living in certain areas of Scotland. For other ways to find help, you could try the Men’s Health Forum Scotland website at www.mhfs.org.uk creative

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