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A Focus on Men's Health - Why?

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A Focus on Men's Health - Why?

By
Jeremy Trotman
on 12 Jun 2015 1:57 PM
Blog Category: Health Blog, Uncategorized

Well, did you know that a males life expectancy is nearly 5 years less than females? Or that the rate of suicide for men is 3 ½ times higher than women? Men are also more likely to be overweight than women, even though women naturally store higher levels of fat (women 25-31% body fat, males 18-24% body fat).

Some other facts worth having a think about include:
  • 95% of men don’t consume sufficient fruit and vegetables
  • 86% are overweight
  • 60% don’t exercise sufficiently
  • Each year there are approximately 20,000 new cases of prostate cancer
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Leading Causes of Death by Gender (2012) shows the ratio of male deaths compared to females by cause of death is:
  • Heart disease: 119 males for every 100 females affected
  • Trachea and lung cancer: 150 males for every 100 females affected
  • Chronic lower respiratory disease: 114 males for every 100 females affected
  • Colon and rectum cancer: 124 males for every 100 females affected
  • Blood and lymph cancer including leukemia: 139 males for every 100 females affected
  • Diabetes: 108 males for every 100 females affected
  • Suicide: 300 males for every 100 females affected

Targeting men’s health in the workplace can be extremely effective, as people spend a large proportion of their life at their working environment.

An important service that JTA provides to workplaces is Worker Health Checks. Having a health check at your workplace can be significantly important for employee health and wellbeing.

A Work Health Check includes:
  • Blood pressure check
  • Cholesterol (total & HDL) check
  • Blood glucose levels
  • Diabetes AUSD risk score
  • Mental health screening
  • Nutrition questionnaire
  • Waistline and obesity checks
  • Exercise questionnaire

A huge benefit of providing Work Health Checks at your workplace is that men can have their risk factors assessed for things like cardiovascular disease, biomedical results like cholesterols levels and blood pressure, and have their diabetes risk score assessed against the guidelines.

Unfortunately men are much less likely to seek professional help for problems and undertake regular check-ups much less often than women. Hosting Work Health Checks can identify those in the high risk category, who can then be advised to undergo further testing by a qualified GP.

Blue collar vs white collar worker risks

According to a report from WorkSafe Victoria, blue collar workers are more likely to have high blood pressure, drink at risky levels, and be at higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease than their white collar counterparts.

The report also found that blue collar workers when compared to white collar workers were:
  • more than twice as likely to smoke (29% vs 13%)
  • more likely to drink alcohol at risky levels (49% vs 37%)
  • more likely to have high blood pressure (30% vs 24%)
  • more likely to have a high risk of type 2 diabetes (31% vs 21%), and
  • more than twice as likely to have a high risk of heart disease (7% vs 3%)

It is vital that men, especially working in the blue collar industry, take care of themselves and their health. This is also important because blue collar workers tend to use their body in a much more physically demanding way than white collar workers.

What can be done personally to improve my health as a male?

Some simple take home health goals that make a significant improvement to men’s health could be something as easily as this checklist below:
  • 2 serves of fruit + 5 serves of vegetables daily
  • 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, or 10,000 daily steps
  • drink 2-3 litre’s per day
  • Be proactive in seeing a GP for any illness or abnormalities
  • Aim to get your waistline circumference below 102cm (in-between lowest rib, and highest point of your hip)

Absenteeism is costing Australia $28 billion in lost productivity and working time. Workplace health programs can increase productivity, employee morale and corporate image, whilst reducing injuries, work claims, insurance premiums and negative associations with being at work. Can your workplace afford not to invest in your employees?

Find out more by viewing our Corporate Health Check Factsheet.

References

PA Foundation, extracted from http://mandate.org.au/menshealthinformation.html 01/10/2014.

Chapman, LS 2005, ‘Meta-evaluation of worksite health promotion economic return studies: 2005 update’, American Journal of Health

Promotion, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 1-11.

WorkSafe Vic – Monash Work Health Checks link, extracted from http://www.ihraustralia.net/news-and-opinion/blue-collar-workers-not-in-the-pinkest-of-health-latest-workhealth-checks 01/10/2014

 

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