THE NOW AND FUTURE OF MEN’S HEALTH IN A DIGITAL WORLD

THE NOW AND FUTURE OF MEN’S HEALTH IN A DIGITAL WORLD

By Fiyinfoluwa Sanwo

Men rule on the physical playing field, but medically, it’s a very different story.

Without saying, there is a general mindset that men are the stronger sex. He seems to manage his emotions better; and his physique sets him as bigger and more powerful. Men rule on the physical playing field, but medically, it’s a very different story. When it comes to health, men are the weaker sex.

Society’s expectations and traditional gender roles are why many men in Nigeria and the rest of the world are less likely to seek help for their health problems. This also leads to more men relying on alcohol and drugs to cope with their health issues rather than seeking help.

In 1920, the life expectancy between women and men was only about a year gap, however, today that gap has expanded to five years as of 2019, according to National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). It would be expected that the length of life for men and women would increase equally with advanced medicine, but it hasn’t.

Factors widening the gap:

• Men scarcely visit the physician for prevention

• Men predominantly occupy many of the dangerous occupations (Construction, Mining, Laborers, Firefighters).

• Little or no awareness of healthy behaviors in men and boys, among many others.

While Obstetrics/Gynecology practitioners became common, a corresponding specialty in the field of men’s health never emerged. Life expectancy is only one consequence of the disparity in preventive care. The gulf between how the sexes engage with the healthcare system is vast. Women begin to have a continuous conversation with a gynecologist from a very early age. They’re made aware of the unique issues around their reproductive health beginning in adolescence. Annual checkups become a regular occurrence at age 18.

This timeline is not typical of most men. They might not visit a urologist, proctologist, reproductive endocrinologist, or another specialist until a specific diagnosis demands treatment. To that point in their medical journey, men are largely left alone to educate themselves on their unique needs. As doctor-patient relationships transition more fully to a digital world, it is critical to reflect on how men’s needs can be met more proactively than the history of offline healthcare suggests.

The transition to a digital world offers the healthcare and health tech industries a fresh start. To break through the stigmas men face around engaging proactively with their health, a more male-centric approach is needed. If men in the targeted demographic have a habit of playing games while sitting on their couches, design a health app that allows them to play games while sitting on their couches. A health app focused on a universal issue – diet, exercise, mental health – might require genderspecific tweaks to generate engagement among men. Due to societal norms, some men may worry that society will look down on them as men who can’t “tough it out” on their own and that seeking--or even needing--help is not “normal” male behavior. Even men who do seek counseling may worry about what others think of their choice. In order to create a safe space where men can seek help and get support, the terminologies used to describe treatment be made more palatable to men.

According to John Robertson, Ph.D., an emeritus professor at Kansas State University. In a 1992 study in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (Vol. 39, No. 2, pages 240-246), for example, he created two brochures for a campus counseling center and distributed them to community college students in auto mechanics, welding, and other mostly male areas. One of the brochures described the center’s counseling services in traditional terms, the other used terms like “consultations” rather than “therapy” and emphasized self-help and achievement. He found that the men who received the second brochure were more likely to say they’d seek assistance at the center than men who received the traditional one. Identity Privacy when accessing

professional help is also key. With the use of telemedicine where men can anonymously connect remotely with health care providers regardless of their location, men are less likely to feel dysfunctional and aberrant.

Lastly, the inclusion of selfefficacy in the design of technology health tools increases the probability of men participating in physical activity and eating fruits and vegetables which can ultimately improve their health and engagement with technology health tools.

in the healthcare space, men are still falling behind women in taking care of themselves. Men’s health, underserved in the digital space and stigmatized in public conversation, deserves a similar revolution just as women’s health began to receive the attention it deserved in recent times from medical professionals.

November was Men’s Health Awareness Month, and this article is to bring to the fore awareness around some of the biggest health issues men face, namely prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention.

Even with present-day research going further than ever before