Health care seeking behavior

[differenceblog]

As previously discussed, men are less likely to seek routine health exams than women. American researchers are quick to point out that use of preventative care is lower among non-white populations, and many of the speculated reasons are cultural. For example, Hunter et al (2007) point to denial, machismo, and fatalism as three main barriers to

Comments

[astrogeek01]

It would be an interesting difference to see, but even though there are no kids here, I've had my Yearly Appointment since uh, well whenever that was. So regardless of that, I do think that comes into play - we go at least once a year anyway. [granted speaking from a white perspective here] Whereas I know very few men who think they need to go once a year if they're feeling ok. C is an exception to that rule; he gets a checkup every year, good boy. But even his (male) doctor seemed a little confused at that - why come in if you feel fine? I wonder how much of it carries over from the medical practitioner side of things too?

[deadkytty9]

The difference in health-care seeking behavior appears to be true across cultures, which renders arguments that it is based in a specific cultural belief (e.g. "machismo") fairly dubious. Are the beliefs about gender roles so universal, regardless of the cultural context, that the effect is the same?

I'm reading a book on political economy in the Middle East, and it says that women must be both educated and "in the habit of venturing out of her home unaccompanied" to make use of regular health care for her children.

The part I found really interesting: "Caldwell (1986) showed that for a sample of ninety-nine countries the best predictor of both infant mortality rates and life expectancy at birth was the 1960 female primary enrollment rate."

Of course, that doesn't say anything about what percentage of the men in those countries are getting regular health care, but it's still interesting to note that health care seeking is so closely tied to female literacy.