Why Men Won’t Work at Improving Their Lifestyle

A few days ago I wrote a blog reporting the clear-cut benefits of improving 4 major factors in an unhealthy lifestyle, in order to avoid diabetes, heart attack, stroke, or cancer. There’s plenty of evidence that men are, on the whole, less likely than women to adapt most of the required changes: plenty of exercise, a sensible diet, not smoking, and weight control, even when they know they should, for their health’s sake.

Now a sociologist has found the root of the problem. Reporting at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, she says “Although previous research points to the health-promoting effects of higher socio-economic status, in the case of most masculine men – those who most strongly endorse ideals of ‘old school’ masculinity – increases in job status actually have a detrimental effect on preventive healthcare seeking”.

Using results of a survey taken in 2004 by 1,000 white, middle-aged men in Wisconsin, Dr Springer collected answers about the men’s beliefs on masculinity, and whether they’d been prompted to have annual physicals, prostate screening, and flu shots. She found that those with the highest ‘masculinity’ scores were half as likely to adopt the health recommendations as other men.

There was one exception to these findings. Blue-collar ‘macho’ workers (e.g. truck drivers, farm workers) were actually more likely to get the recommended health care than their white-collar fellow-thinkers.  This may be because “the masculinity threat of seeking health care is less concerning than the masculinity threat of not performing their jobs:, according to Dr Springer.

Wives have a difficult role here. They should try to encourage their spouses to get preventive tests and treatments while at the same time maintaining their masculine roles. Maybe the emergence of metrosexuals will help in this paradoxical situation . . .