Report shows men’s health is lagging

THE state of men’s health in Victoria is lagging women’s health, according to a new report published during Men’s Health Week.

The Men’s Health Report Card 2019, released by the Australian Men’s Health Forum (AMHF), highlights several areas of concern including the fact that men in Victoria are dying 5.2 years younger than women on average.

AMHF, the national peak body for men’s health, is calling on the Victorian government to invest more time, money and resources into improving the lives and health of men and boys.

“This report card on the state of men and boys’ health in Victoria tells us we must do better,” AMHF president Jonathan Bedloe said.

Our sons are less educated than our daughters. Our brothers die younger than our sisters. Our fathers are more likely to die at work than our mothers. Our male friends are more likely to die by suicide than our female friends.

“The solution to these problems is not to stop working to improve the lives of women and girls, but to increase our efforts to tackle the issues facing men and boys. This means investing more time, money and resources into helping health services become more male-friendly and focused on the needs of men and boys.

“It also means looking at the wider social factors that shape men’s health, which include boys’ education, our experiences of fatherhood, our working lives, our financial wellbeing and our social connections.”

According to the report, in Victoria:

• Men die 5.2 years younger (the average age of death in 2017 being 80.5 years for males and 85.7 years for females
• Nearly five times more men aged 35-44 die from more heart disease than women the same age
• 1 in 3 men (31.9 per cent) die of cancer compared with 1 in 4 women (26 per cent)
• 3 in 4 suicides are men (445 of the 621 suicides in 2017)
• 92 per cent of workplace fatalities are men (33 out of 36 deaths in 2017), and
• 3 in 4 road fatalities are male, with 4 men and boys a week dying in road accidents.

The report also highlights some of the broader social issues that are known to affect men and boys’ health such as education, employment, finances and family life.

When compared with other states and territories, Victoria was ranked second for men’s health behind only the ACT.