What can be done to maintain men's health: perspectives from the EAU Young Academic Urologists Working Party Men's Health Group

Approaches to Engaging Men During Primary Healthcare Encounters: A scoping review

Gender-responsive healthcare is critical to advancing men's health given that masculinities intersect with other social determinants to impact help-seeking, engagement with primary healthcare, and patient outcomes. A scoping review was undertaken with the aim to synthesize gender-responsive approaches used by healthcare providers (HCPs) to engage men with primary healthcare. MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles published between 2000 and February 2024. Titles and abstracts for 15,659 citations were reviewed, and 97 articles met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and analyzed thematically. Thirty-three approaches were synthesized from across counseling/psychology, general practice, social work, nursing, psychiatry, pharmacy, and unspecified primary healthcare settings. These were organized into three interrelated themes: (a) tailoring communication to reach men; (b) purposefully structuring treatment to meet men's health needs, and (c) centering the therapeutic alliance to retain men in care. Strength-based and asset-building approaches focused on reading and responding to a diversity of masculinities was reinforced across the three findings. While these approaches are recommended for the judicious integration into health practitioner education and practice, this review highlighted that the evidence remains underdeveloped, particularly for men who experience health inequities. Critical priorities for further research include intersectional considerations and operationalizing gender-responsive healthcare approaches for men and its outcomes, particularly at first point-of-contact encounters.

What Does Men's Health Education Look Like in Australian University Health Curricula? A Formative Evaluation and Future Enhancement Opportunities

OBJECTIVES

Developing the capacity of the health system, and the practitioners within it, to provide quality gender responsive care to men and boys remains critical to advancing men's health, and reducing health inequities amongst men. The aim for this study was to undertake a formative evaluation of Australian university health curricula for men's health content and scope the opportunities for future enhancement.

METHODS

A two-stage evaluation first involved a review of online course information for a sample of medicine (n = 10), nursing (n = 10), pharmacy (n = 10), clinical psychology (n = 10), social work (n = 12) and public health (n = 15) university curricula for men's health and gender content and opportunities for curricula enhancement. Secondly, university staff completed a survey on the coverage of men's health in their course(s), and receptivity, barriers and facilitators to curricula enhancement.

RESULTS

The curricula review found no dedicated men's health courses, and men's health was referenced in the information for 10 of 1246 courses (0.8%) in 8 of 67 curricula. Gender was rarely referenced in course information, particularly for the disciplines of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and clinical psychology. There was an average of 16 enhancement opportunities per curricula with 40% relating to communicating and engaging with men within healthcare. Seventy staff from 25 universities and all target disciplines validated the curricula review findings of limited dedicated men's health content. Eighty-three percent were receptive to curricula enhancement, facilitated by content integration into existing courses.

CONCLUSION

This review provides clear evidence that there are gaps, opportunities, and educator receptiveness for improving and implementing content regarding men's health education and gender responsive care in Australian university health curricula.

Challenges of middle-aged men in utilizing new health services from primary health care providers' perspective: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Despite its special importance among different age groups, the middle-aged male group has often been neglected in the Iranian health system. The aim of this study was to examine, from the perspective of primary health care providers, the challenges of middle-aged men in utilizing health services.

METHODS

This is a qualitative research that was conducted using semi-structured interviews in 2020 in Shoushtar Faculty of Medical Sciences, Iran. The research population included 60 managers and staff of the health sector. To collect the data, a group discussion method was used based on purposive sampling method. Data analysis was done manually using the conventional content analysis method with data reduction. Lincoln & Guba's four criteria of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability were used to assess the trustworthiness of the results.

RESULTS

The challenges of middle-aged men to receive modern health services were identified in 35 codes, 9 categories and three main themes. These themes included Context, Content, and Process. The Context theme comprised the following three categories: personal, economic and sociocultural, and geographic factors. The Content theme contained two categories of staff and facilities. Finally, the Process theme included four categories of service quality, program management, system of information registration and follow-up, and health education and publicizing.

CONCLUSION

Promoting middle-aged men's benefits from modern health services calls for overcoming three categories of challenges related to: context, content, and process. Time and place restrictions on access to services should be alleviated by empowering health care workers, improving their working conditions, and strengthening the facilities of comprehensive health service centers. In addition, with proper management of the family physician program and service provision at different levels, the coverage of services for middle-aged men can also be extended.