The Men’s Health Forum: An Initiative to Address Health Disparities in the Community (original) (raw)
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In men's health research, an important gap exists in how we explain differences in health among men. Though scholarly contributions to men's health disparities are growing, there continues to be a lack of discourse around concrete solutions that can be applied to reducing or eliminating differences in health outcomes between groups of men. This is the first special issue dedicated to describing strategies for addressing men's health disparities globally and across racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Collectively, these papers represent a range of efforts to not simply explain men's health disparities, but to describe interventions or findings in such a way that they inform strategies to reduce or eliminate men's health disparities. This body of work uses a variety of research methods, captures global, social and economic developmental issues, and provides practical solutions that can be implemented by various stakeholders at various levels.
American Journal of Men's Health
African American (AA) men continue to experience worse health outcomes compared to men of other races/ethnicities. Community-based interventions are known to be effective in health promotion and disease prevention. The program objectives were to (a) increase knowledge and risk awareness of targeted conditions, (b) change health-care-seeking attitudes toward regular primary care among AA men, and (c) improve their lifestyle-related health behaviors by leveraging the influence of women in their lives. The community-engaged educational intervention targeted both men and women and included eight 90-min sessions per cohort. Topics included prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health, health-care access, and healthy lifestyle. Sessions were both didactic and interactive. A pre-/post-intervention questionnaire assessed knowledge. Interviews were conducted with male participants and a focus group discussion (FGD) with women to assess program impact. Interview and FGD tr...
A Community-Level Assessment of Barriers to Preventive Health Behaviors Among Culturally Diverse Men
American journal of men's health, 2015
There are significant gender disparities in health outcomes and health care utilization in the United States, with men experiencing more of these disparities. It is critical to ascertain the interplay between societal conditions, health behaviors, and access to services and the impact of these factors on health outcomes and utilization of health care. The present study is part of a larger initiative titled, The Men's Health Study: Addressing Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors, which has two purposes-to annually assess the motivators of and barriers to health-promoting behaviors among culturally diverse men attending the Men's Health Forum (MHF) and to use this information to develop an intervention program that facilitates healthy lifestyle behaviors among men. The MHF is a community-driven initiative for medically underserved men in Tampa, Florida that offers free health screenings and wellness exhibitors in order to empower men to lead a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this art...
American journal of men's health, 2018
African American men continue to bear a disproportionate share of the burden of disease. Engaging these men in health research and health promotion programs-especially lower-income, African American men who are vulnerable to chronic disease conditions such as obesity and heart disease-has historically proven quite difficult for researchers and public health practitioners. The few effective outreach strategies identified in the literature to date are largely limited to recruiting through hospital clinics, churches, and barbershops. The Men of Color Health Awareness (MOCHA) project is a grassroots, community-driven initiative that has developed a number of innovative outreach strategies. After describing these strategies, we present data on the demographic and health characteristics of the population reached using these methods, which indicate that MOCHA has been highly effective in reaching this population of men.
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African American men's health has at times been regarded as irrelevant to the health and well-being of the communities where they are born, grow, live, work, and age. The uniqueness of being male and of African descent calls for a critical examination and deeper understanding of the psycho-socio-historical context in which African American men have lived. There is a critical need for scholarship that better contextualizes African American Male Theory and cultural humility in terms of public health. Furthermore, the focus of much of the social determinants of health and health equity policy literature has been on advocacy, but few researchers have examined why health-related public policies have not been adopted and implemented from a political and theoretical policy analysis perspective. The purpose of this article will be to examine African American men's health within the context of social determinants of health status, health behavior, and health inequalities-elucidating policy implications for system change and providing recommendations from the vantage point of health equity.
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Introduction to Social Determinants of Health among African-American Men
Social Determinants of Health among African American Men (Chapter 1), 2012
This chapter is an introduction to the social determinants of health among African-American men, and lays the foundation for the book. It starts by presenting an overview of the serious health inequities affecting African- American men, and then describes why this volume is needed. Next, it considers the social determinants of health among African-American men in relation to health status, health behavior, and health care, subdividing this concept into three interrelated components—the social determinants of health status, the social determinants of health behavior, and the social determinants of health care. Finally, suggestions are offered for addressing these socially determined health inequities affecting African-American men. These consist of recommendations for research and programs that address the social determinants of health among African-American men, social policies that tackle social and environmental issues affecting African-American men’s health, and health policies that promote health equity among this and other vulnerable populations.
Positionality and Unpacking Current Perspectives on Black Male Health Toward Transformative Action
Black Men's Health, 2022
Analyzing the current health status of Black men in the United States reveals the need for transformative action. By most measures in comparison to men and women of every racial group, the health profile of Black men is characterized by a significantly higher rate of disease and premature death. Black males have higher mortality rates from medical conditions and higher preventable morbidity (Jones-Eversley et al., 2020). Watkins et al. (2017) note that Black men are 31% more likely to die from all types of cancer with lower five-year survival rates at each stage of cancer diagnosis. Further, Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, are 14 times more likely to experience kidney failure due to hypertension, have a 30% higher mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease, and have a 60% higher mortality rate from stroke compared to non-Hispanic white men (Watkins et al., 2017, p. 6). Despite this data on the overall health outcomes of Black men, there is still a dearth of literature and perspectives that specifically focuses on mental health challenges of this population. This is unsurprising as research studies have traditionally viewed physical health as separate from mental health. Mental health as defined by the World Health Organization (2001) is a state of well-being where one realizes that his or her own abilities can cope with normal life stressors and he or she can engage in work productively and fruitfully and can contribute to his or her community (Ward & Mengesha, 2013). Mental disorders are "health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, and/or behavior that are associated with distress and/or impaired functioning" (CDC, 2021).