Men’s Health is Falling Behind – Some Thoughts About Why

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-voices/mens-health-falling-behind-some-thoughts-about-why?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery As I described in my previous blog, the trajectory of men’s health in the U.S. is headed in a negative direction. As we develop approaches to reversing these trends of declining life expectancy, excess chronic disease and disproportionate risk taking, it behooves us to examine the potential underlying reasons for this decline. Three key parts of the men’s health puzzle relate to income, employment and education, which paradoxically have evidence of both cause and effect in this context. As I discussed in my previous blog, male labor force participation has dropped from 80% in 1970 to 68% in 2020. While this is partly due to the fact that men disproportionately work in fields impacted by automation, poor health also plays a significant role: 26% of men of prime working age report being unable to work because of sickness, compared to 18% of women. Men are also falling behind in educational attainment: In 1972, the proportion of men to women receiving bachelor’s degrees favored men by 12 percent but by 2021, only 4 in 10 college students were men. This gap, which is also widening globally, is even greater for Black and Hispanic men in the U.S. These changes are occurring as our country, and indeed much of the world, is undergoing a transition to economies driven by knowledge and high technology.