LSTM plays key role in The Lancet’s first ever series on men’s health

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine academics have played a key role in The Lancet’s first series on men’s health, which highlights a lack of focus on the issue despite persistent poor outcomes around the world.

The three-paper series finds that men’s poor health and premature death are not driven by biology alone, but by the environments they live and work in.

Men’s health is underexplored – despite medicine and health care traditionally being designed for men and the privileged position they hold in gendered power relations- leaving it vulnerable to companies and influencers in the manosphere to exploit.

Professor Sally Theobald said: “If we take forward an approach that prioritises gender justice, then focusing on men’s health should not be at the expense of tackling women’s health or women’s oppression. This is not a zero sum game.

“Men’s illness and injury create multiple harms across individuals, families and communities, and also bring gendered caring burdens that often fall on women.

“We argue that men, and especially marginalized men, also stand to benefit from gender justice, because patriarchy intersects with other structural forces to harm everyone’s health. Tackling societal and structural drivers of harm benefits us all.”

Factors such as poverty, race, disability, sexuality, employment, housing and access to healthcare all play a role, and men who face social or economic disadvantage are especially likely to experience poorer health outcomes.

The team argue that improving men’s health requires action at many levels, including tackling inequality, improving access to healthcare, addressing harmful stereotypes about masculinity, and ensuring men’s health is included in broader public health strategies.

Dr Webster Mavhu, said: “As someone who has been working with men in sub-Saharan Africa for about two decades, this first ever Lancet Series on men’s health is very important.

“Much of the existing research on men’s health, and particularly HIV, has focused on hegemonic masculinities in isolation and paid insufficient attention to the influence of other intersecting systems of power and structural, social and commercial determinants on men’s health.”

The researchers say clear, evidence-based information and support are needed to promote healthier outcomes. Ultimately, improving men’s health not only benefits men themselves but families, communities and society as a whole.

The LSTM core research team on the Series was led by Professors Rachel Tolhurst and Sally Theobald, Dr Webster Mavhu (LSTM and Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research, Zimbabwe) and Dr Beatrice Egid; and also includes authorships from other LSTM colleagues including Prof Fouad Fouad and Drs Laura Dean, Rachael Thomson, Beate Ringwald and Chukwuebuka Ugwu.

The papers are co-authored by researchers from across the globe including LSTM Honorary Professor Sabina Rashid and colleagues from James P Grant School of Public Health in Bangladesh.

The LSTM team were joined by experts from the universities of Sheffield, Glasgow and Pennsylvania, Monash University Malaysia, and independent think tank Global 50/50.

Together they are calling for men’s health to be embedded in existing structures, such as universal health coverage and health and social care policies at all levels.

They also highlight the need for better collection and analysis of data, to inform action so marginalised men are made visible and their needs addressed.

Discussing the research, Dr Jonathan Pimm, senior editor at The Lancet, said: “Equity is about treating according to need and the Series makes clear the specific health needs of men and the value of recognising and acting on them.

“From the ex-miner facing physical ill-health and unemployment, to the middle-aged man reluctant to have his prostate checked and the adolescent boy feeling anxious, depressed and neglected.

“At heart, the message is a simple one: we need a more empathetic approach to men’s health.”

A launch event will be held at LSTM on Thursday 5 November with academics highlighting the importance of their research findings.

Find out more about the LSTM-led Gender and Health Group, and research programmes led by LSTM and included in the series – Arise Consortium and LIGHT Consortium.