Male Health Research and Policy

Male Health Research and Policy Workshop
This workshop was hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies and the University of Otago Wellington and was held on June 1, 2010.

In recent years some health researchers have suggested that more attention needs to be given to developing strategies for improving men’s health. This workshop therefore aimed to define where the problems lie, explore information gaps, highlight a set of policies and programs currently making a difference, and identify some possible broad research and policy agendas.

The workshop was informed by the following presentations

Tony Blakely, Otago University Wellington “The epidemiology of men’s health in Aotearoa New Zealand: What do we know?”
Peter Sandiford, Waitematā District Health Board “Getting back the missing men: declining gender inequality in NZ life expectancy”
Rhys Jones, University of Auckland “Māori men’s health”
Felicity Goodyear-Smith, University of Auckland “Gendered approaches to health policy - how does this impact on men's health?
Santosh Jatrana, Otago University Wellington “Men die earlier and women have higher morbidity- really? NZ evidence on subjective health”
Marama Parore, Pharmac “One Heart Many Lives - Hauora Tāne 'by the community for the community '”
Stuart Birks, Massey University “Men alone: Relationship break-up and men’s health”
Sunny Collings, Otago University Wellington “Not waving but drowning: preventing male suicide”
Dalton Kelly, Cancer Society of New Zealand “Men and cancer”
Jaikishan Desai, Victoria University “Changing behaviour: What ‘nudges’ are useful?”
Lannes Johnson, Harbour Health “Many Ministers and has anything changed?”

Resources:
At the workshop a number of key New Zealand research papers were drawn upon – these include:

GOODYEAR-SMITH FA. An argument against health promotion advocacy for specific populations, Health Promotion: Global Perspectives, 2 (1): 5, Sep/Oct 1999 http://www.healthpromotionjournal.com/publications/global/1999-09/1999-09.htm#Argument

GOODYEAR-SMITH F, BIRKS S. Gendered approaches to health policy: how does this impact on men’s health?, New Zealand Family Physician, 30 (1): 23-29, 2003 http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/assets/Uploads/NZFP/Feb2003/Goodyear_Smith-Feb03.pdf

MCKINLAY E. Men and Health: A literature review. Wellington: Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, 2005.

JOHNSON L, FIELD A, STEPHENSON P. Improving men’s health in New Zealand: A review of the benefits of men’s health awareness activities and a proposal for the development a targeted men’s health programme, 2006 www.healthwest.co.nz/documents/MensHealthinNewZealand.pdf

JONES R, CRENGLE S, MCCREANOR T. How Tikanga Guides and Protects the Research Process: Insights from the Hauora Tane Project. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 2006; 29: 60-77.

BLAKELY T, TOBIAS M, ATKINSON J, YEH L-C, HUANG K. (2007) Tracking Disparity: Trends in ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in mortality, 1981–2004. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2007., http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/0/B6832BD2547F1858CC25733F00771889

JOHNSTON L, HUGGARD P, GOODYEAR-SMITH F. Men’s health and the health of the nation, New Zealand Medical Journal, 121 (1287): 69-76, 2008 http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/121-1287/3418/

CALLISTER P, DIDHAM R (2009) Dying differently: Gendered mortality trends in New Zealand, IPS Working Paper 09/01, Wellington: Institute of Policy Studies, 2009 http://ips.ac.nz/publications/publications/show/251

SANDIFORD P. Getting back the missing men of Aotearoa: declining gender inequality in NZ life expectancy, Journal of Primary Health Care; 1(4):270–277, 2009 http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/assets/Uploads/JPHC/December2009/JPHCOSPSandifordDec09.pdf

CALLISTER P, DIDHAM R (2009) Dying differently: Gendered mortality trends in New Zealand, IPS Working Paper 09/01, Wellington: Institute of Policy Studies, 2009

SANDIFORD P. Getting back the missing men of Aotearoa: declining gender inequality in NZ life expectancy, Journal of Primary Health Care; 1(4):270–277, 2009

SANDIFORD P. Gender inequality in New Zealand Life Expectancy: Decomposition by age and cause. New Zealand Medical Journal, 20(1307), 2009 The recently announced National Australian Male Health Policy was also highlighted. This can be found at: http://www.health.gov.au/malehealthpolicy

JONES RG, MCCREANOR T. Men's Health in New Zealand. In: Wilkins D, Savoye E. (eds), Men's health around the world: A review of policy and progress across 11 countries. Brussels: European Men's Health Forum, 2009. Pp. 45-50.
Available at http://www.emhf.org/index.cfm/item_id/695

A discussion of some early New Zealand attempts to develop a Men’s Health Policy can be found at: http://www.massey.ac.nz/~kbirks/gender/forum.htm

Finally, the Canterbury Men’s Centre has seen a need by social work and clinical staff for easy access to health promotion materials for men. They have done this on the www.meninnz.org.nz web site, with all posters and flyers having an adjoining link telling how and where to order the resource.