BLOKES are being urged to sign up for health research to better help men.
Ensuring men are adequately represented in health research can be difficult at the best of times. But a new Men’s Health Register launched by the University of Adelaide aims to overcome this.
The register was launched by the Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health at the University of Adelaide to coincide with national Men’s Health Week in June.
“Our new register is effectively a ‘captive audience’ of men willing to help expert teams undertake research to achieve better health outcomes for men,” said centre behavioural scientist, Dr Camille Short, who established the register.
“At best, currently, we can only get a representation of about 25-30 per cent of men involved in our health studies compared with women. This really limits our ability to learn what works for men, and how we can better design services and treatments that best meets their needs and preferences.
“We need to change this so our healthcare system works for men.”
The centre’s men’s health researcher, Sean Martin, said that after signing up men will be regularly contacted about studies that may be of interest to them.
They can choose to take part in surveys, studies testing new services and programs, or treatments for common issues affecting men.These include studies on exercise and nutrition, chronic disease, depression, sexual and reproductive health, parenting, prostate cancer and workplace injury.
“An added benefit of the register is that men can also opt to receive the latest men’s health information straight from a credible source,” Dr Martin said.
“Most of us know that men’s attitudes and behaviours towards their health often differ between sub-groups of men, and certainly differ from that of most women. It’s important we capture this difference in our research if we’re to plot the best way forward.”