Male, young, unemployed, sick, …
Article Outline
In the midst of the current economic downturn, politicians and policy-makers are fighting to manage short- and long-term shocks and to prepare their economy and health-systems to perform better in a medium-term economic environment characterised by growing volatility and an increase in regulations to stave off such crises in the future. It is more important now than ever for all countries in the world to pay attention to one of the fundamental cornerstones of societies in the 21st century – the dignity of, and respect for, all humans! Over the past two decades substantial progress has been made in gender equality, education and improving health for women and men in many countries. Yet even in the USA and many other developed countries there are still significant gaps in job opportunities for women and in the far lower life-expectancy for men.
Previously, young men used to enjoy a very secure position in the employment market, in contrast to the case in more recent times. Men, especially young men, are finding it increasingly difficult to find a job in Europe. This is particularly true of the construction sector, which has always been a sector of employment for men; it is also true of transportation and communication companies. The latter will be the next industrial sectors that will suffer from the economic and financial crisis. The crisis has already clearly upset the balance in the banking and car industries. From March 2008 to March 2009, mean unemployment rates in the EU have increased from 6.7% to 8%. In February 2009 the total number of individuals without a job in the EU was 20 million! According to the prognosis of the EU Commission, the unemployment rate in the EU will be about 10% at the end of 2009. Whether this will signify the peak is highly uncertain, say the experts. The economic crisis has drawn the real economy downward this year but many fear that it may be 2010 before the economic crisis fully pervades the employment market.
The following trends have been observed:
Men are more affected:
The mean rate of unemployment in the EU increased by 0.2 percentage points among men while it “only” increased by 0.1 percentage points in women. The EU Commission primarily attributes this phenomenon to the poor prospects in the building and car industries, which have been more markedly affected by the crisis. A large percentage of employees in these industrial sectors are men. This is also true of other “crisis sectors” such as the transportation sector.
Young men are more strongly affected:
Even before February 2009 young men were the main persons affected by the crisis. Unemployment rates among 15- to 24-year-olds have markedly increased since April 2008, and have massively increased since September 2008. In February 2009 the rate had risen by a further 0.5 percentage points to 17.5%.
Studies focusing on young persons have shown that young men rarely take precautionary measures for the future. Rather, suicide rates increase markedly during times of crisis. Aggressive behaviour due to unemployment becomes a more common phenomenon and there is widespread hopelessness accompanied by a greater consumption of addictive agents, alcohol and smoking.
This worldwide economic crisis requires new approaches and ideas in general, as well as for all health systems, because just cost-cutting is not the answer! This would again mainly affect the underprivileged, the poor and minorities. We hope that the World Congress for Men's Health and Gender 2009 (WCMH 2009) from October 9th to 11th in Vienna will – among many other efforts – lead to a greater awareness of the challenges, needs and opportunities in gender medicine and, especially, Men's Health in addition to serving as a catalyst for change.
It is, therefore, hoped that everybody involved in the field of Men's Health would welcome Europe's first Men's Health Policy, which is described and discussed in the article ‘Getting men's health onto a policy agenda – charting the development of a National Men's Health Policy in Ireland’ by Richardson and Carroll in this issue of jmh [1].
The Irish National Men's Health Policy [1], published in January 2009, was developed following an extensive research and consultation process. The findings from this consultation process, together with an extensive review of the evidence underpinning the issues raised, were then translated into concrete policy recommendations and actions. These recommendations and actions address a broad range of Men's Health issues and have implications in terms of gender-mainstreaming Men's Health across a number of government departments.
The paper by Richardson and Carroll [1] also reflects on some of the key lessons learned and on the challenges in terms of making a Men's Health policy succeed. I believe that they can serve – always taking into account cultural and national differences – as a role model for developing other Men's Health policies around the globe. This effort has also recently been successfully undertaken in Australia and hopefully many others will follow!
One of the reasons for the shorter life-expectancy of men compared to women is their underuse of health services and the concomitant lack of benefit of medical prevention. White and Witty, in their editorial [2], point out that, in 2007, 21% of working-age men (15–64 years) compared to 12% of working-age women died in England and Wales. This suggests that despite advances in medical science and an increasing longevity we are, perhaps, still not having the impact on young and middle-aged men as we would like. And it has to be feared that this problem, as already pointed out previously, might be aggravated due to the current economic crisis.
White and Witty point out that there are some conclusions that can be drawn from established data on the way men live their lives. For example, in the UK more men work full-time (14 million men to 8 million women), fewer men than women work part-time and fewer of those men working full-time have any form of flexible working pattern. Furthermore, 39% of self employed men work over 45
h per week, so that attending for health checks during the working day are at best problematic, at worst impossible. In addition, the majority of community health promotion activities are also run during the day and are, therefore, difficult for men to access. The new UK Gender and Access to Health Services study recommended that more effort needed to be made to get to where the population works. This is also one of the key components of the new Irish Men's Health Policy. In the UK, a new initiative, backed by the Men's Health Forum, is “Premier League Health”, the first such initiative to use the pull of Football's Premier League clubs, such as Chelsea and Manchester City, to attract young men into sessions that are aimed at getting them fit and to coach them on how to remain healthy. EMHF Board Member Alan White, Professor for Men's Health at Leeds Metropolitan University, England, stressed the importance of this initiative at its launch by saying “The men this partnership is aimed at are a generation that have very few services specifically designed for them yet face some of the greatest health challenges both now and throughout their lives.” [3].
Crisis requires new, unique ideas and, therefore, we need more such initiatives for delivering better health to women and men in these difficult times.
References
PII: S1875-6867(09)00042-6
doi:10.1016/j.jomh.2009.04.004
© 2009 WPMH GmbH. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
