Why Are Men Still Not Getting The Health Message?

Why Are Men Still Not Getting The Health Message?

One of the country’s most loved comedians Bob Monkhouse died ten years ago from prostate cancer.   Following his death a ground breaking TV commercial was aired featuring the deceased comic attempting to give older men the message of what they needed to look out for as the early warning signs of prostate cancer. 

A new study however has shown that there are still millions of men over 50 who do not know the signs to look out for with the prevalent and insidious disease of prostate cancer.  But according to the study, this area of health is just the tip of the iceberg.   It is very likely that men in the over 50 age group will know far less than their female counterparts about many diseases like bowel cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer and many other diseases and conditions.  As well as this ignorance of medical matters men who are over fifty are likely to be less than eager to eat their fruit and vegetables five a day quota.  They are also more likely to put off going to the doctor but are more likely than a woman to cave into pressure from their partner and make that visit to the surgery. 

The study that was conducted amongst twelve thousand men over fifty, found that most had to be bullied by their wives or partners to get them to take care of themselves or to seek medical advice when it was needed.   They knew far less about health in general and disease symptoms in particular and were more likely than younger men and their female partners to give exercise a miss. 

The fact that a lot of men are ignorant of what is the best way of life for them and the best way to look after themselves is a worry.  However, more of a worry is that they do not seem to know what symptoms to look out for that should set alarm bells ringing and have them beating a path to their doctors door.   It is difficult to know what else could be done to raise awareness given that there has been a concerted public campaign to educate men on the dangers of undiagnosed prostate cancer.

In the year of the tenth anniversary of Bob Monkhouse’s death perhaps the message might now at last get through.

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Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio