Health care of adolescent males: overview, rationale, and recommendations.

TLDR: Overlooked amid the advances made in womens health over the past decade strategies for improving the health status of men and the quality of health care that they receive are now emerging.

Abstract: Overlooked amid the advances made in womens health over the past decade strategies for improving the health status of men and the quality of health care that they receive are now emerging. The importance of this is made clear from national data indicating that at birth the life expectancy for men is an average 5.4 years less than that for women (5.2 years for non-Hispanic Caucasians and 6.7 for African Americans). The age adjusted death rates for leading causes of premature mortality such as heart disease malignant neoplasm and motor vehicle crashes are also substantially greater for men than for women (32% 32% and 56% greater respectively). Greater emphasis on the value of prevention is also emerging. In the medical model attention is directed traditionally toward early detection and treatment of conditions such as heart disease hypertension cancer and hyperlipidemia. Using the public health model of prevention attention is directed toward antecedent factors that contribute to disease. The need for this approach was made clear in a seminal study which concluded that personal behaviors such as tobacco diet and physical activity alcohol firearms sexual behavior motor vehicles and illicit use of drugs accounted for approximately 42% of the 2.148 millions deaths during 1990. (excerpt)