被误导的男子气概使许多男人不去看医生

男人不喜欢看医生是老生常谈了. But unlike tropes about refusing to ask for directions or put away their laundry, 这对健康有严重的影响.

这是事实 男性不太可能 比女人 to get preventive screenings, seek timely medical care or be vaccinated for 新型冠状病毒肺炎 或者是 流感. 男性也有 寿命缩短 比女人.

尽管预期寿命差距的原因很复杂, 生物学只能解释部分原因, 鲍威尔说, 康涅狄格大学哈特福德健康差异研究所所长, 康涅狄格.

“社会正在发生一些事情,鲍威尔说, 同时也是康涅狄格大学健康中心的精神病学副教授. She and other researchers who have looked at why men avoid the doctor often focus on stereotypical concepts of masculinity.

玛丽银行, an assistant professor in the department of psychological sciences at Kent State University in Ohio, said men often think acknowledging pain or seeking help means "someone's going to take my 'man card' away from me."

That means not only are they reluctant to visit a doctor when they're sick or injured, 一旦到了那里，他们可能就不会诚实地交流了. Men believe, "I have to put on this front, and I have to be consistently strong. 我不能让人觉得我软弱. 我不能让人觉得我很情绪化. 因为如果我是，我就会失去社会地位，”希梅尔斯坦说.

这个问题在各个年龄组中都是一致的, 她说, although it tends to taper off as men get older and their health problems mount.

Not all men think in this super-masculine way, Himmelstein said, but those who do are most at risk.

鲍威尔表示同意. “这些信息‘像个男人一样接受它,“男孩不哭。,“走一走就好。,' and 'soldier on' are things that some men internalize with a particular level of rigidity."

鲍威尔说，更广泛的因素也在起作用. From the onset of puberty, the health care system encourages women to see doctors regularly. "So they get a kind of early-life health socialization that boys and men are often not privy to, 除了男孩子参加有组织的运动, 他们还得做个体检."

男性也往往有 更高程度的不信任 in the medical system, 她说, and people who mistrust doctors are 不太可能寻求治疗.

在黑人男性中，不信任是一个特别的问题. Historic racism and the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study are often cited as causes, 但鲍威尔表示，问题更多的是在此时此地. 常数, personal affronts – "the kind of racism that creates deaths by a thousand cuts" – chip away at men's trust in the health care system.

面对这样的挑战, 鲍威尔说, stereotypical notions of masculinity might actually protect Black men. 她领导的一项研究发表在 普通内科杂志, Black men who reported higher levels of self-reliance – the idea that a man takes his destiny into his own hands – were less likely to put off blood pressure and cholesterol screenings.

在鲍威尔看来，这为解决问题指明了道路. “我们可以在某些方面改变这个剧本, saying to men that the way to be a man about your life or to show up as someone strong and as a protector is to take care of your health."

希梅尔斯坦说，军方就是这么做的. One campaign to reduce the stigma of seeking psychological help, for example, used "Real Warriors. 真正的战斗. 真正的力量”为主题.

鲍威尔说，医疗保健系统需要满足男性的需要. 例如, many men who are providers f或者是ir families take that role seriously and say they don't want to take time off work to get medical care. So a clinic might extend operating hours to nights and weekends to accommodate them. 她指出，这将比男性受益更多.

确保男人和男孩每次就诊都能得到最大限度的照顾, 体检可以扩大到包括更多的筛查, such as for depression or other important problems that men tend to shun. To ease the burden on overworked family physicians, community health workers could be employed.

诊所可以在尊重病人方面做得更多, 鲍威尔说, because communication in initial appointments makes a difference in determining whether men return. “黑人男性, 特别是, 是谁遭受了如此多系统性的非人化, 需要一个让他们感觉有联系的时刻, 看到并验证."

Such solutions, 她说, have "a lot more to do with the art of care delivery than the science.“这需要沙巴足球体育平台和精力. 但她很乐观.

“这不是一个无法解决的问题，”鲍威尔说. “我们只是没有投入精力去解决这个问题."

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