Macho men don't get preventative care

In the August 14, 2009 edition of Vital Signs, Roni Caryn Rabin describes a Rutgers study in which researchers found that men who endorsed the old school notions of masculinity are not as likely to seek preventative healthcare, such as a physical.

I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately, in listening to CNNs Black In America 2 and observing my own father. If we are supposed to be Godly men, one who takes care of our families and do not shy from our responsibilities, we need to do a better job in utlizing the care in which we have been blessed to access.

We live in a different time, society, and environment. We can still be men and take ownership of our insecurities. We can still be men and accept our vulnerabilties. It isn't soft if men have these things--we all do--its soft when we don't take ownership of them and work to improve. This is the mindset that men have to have in a society in constant flux and change.

50 million people in this country do not have health insurace. I'm sure they would trade places with these men any time to access the healthcare coverage they take for granted. We have to train our men and boys that a man is more than a phyically strong, my way or the highway person. Men are secure with themselves enough to know their faults and work hard to make them assets. Men take pride and are responsible for themselves and their families--in this regard, being "macho" isn't being a man at all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/research/18patt.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%2b%22health+insurance%22&st=nyt

Patterns: Do Real Men Go to the Doctor?

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: August 14, 2009

Real men don’t ask for directions, and now researchers say the reluctance to ask for help may not just mean they get lost. It may also take a toll on their health.

Men who strongly endorsed old-school notions of masculinity — believing the ideal man is the strong, silent type who does not complain about pain — were only half as likely as other men to seek preventive health care, like an annual physical, the study found.

Even men with a high level of education, a factor that is strongly associated with better health and usually a predictor of longer life, were less likely to seek preventive health care if they strongly adhered to the ideal of the macho man, said Kristen W. Springer, the study’s primary investigator and an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers.

“It’s ironic that the belief in the John Wayne, Sylvester Stallone archetype of masculinity — and the idea that real men don’t get sick and don’t need to see the doctor, and that real men aren’t vulnerable — is actually causing men to get sick,” Dr. Springer said. “These stereotypes and ideas are actually a reason why men do get sick.”

The study may help explain the gender longevity gap, with women outliving men by about five years, Dr. Springer said.

The findings, from a large longitudinal study of about 1,000 middle-age men who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957, were presented at a meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco.