Indeed, the average man’s life
expectancy is 3.7 years less than a woman’s. One man in five dies before they
reach 65. Men tend to go to their doctor far less than women, and men are three
times more likely to die from suicide than women. In the UK three out of every four
suicides are men. Suicide is the biggest cause of death in men aged under 45.
The Mental Health Foundation notes that one in eight men will be living with a
common mental health problem such as anxiety, stress or depression. So, it is
not surprising perhaps, that the themes for this year’s Men’s Health Week are ‘men’s
health and the internet’ – a theme that focuses on the impact of technology
and social media on mental health.
The Men’s Health Forum reminds us
that the iPhone first went on sale in 2007. Those born then will turn 16 this
year. Unlike myself, these folk will have grown up what can be described as a
high-performance computer in their pocket. I didn’t get my first computer until
I was 30. It was a great big clunky Amstrad. Its usefulness now would pale into
insignificance compared to even today’s oldest iPhone.
This year’s theme, whilst looking
at the possible impact on men’s health, also highlights a potential emergent
dilemma for policy makers. NHS England devoted an entire chapter in its Long
Term Plan to describe its digitally enabled care ambitions. The Secretary of
State for Health and Care, Steve Barclay, in his keynote speech to the NHS Confed
last week, pledged to protect the NHS technology funding, noting that
increasingly digital technology will be the cornerstone of how future healthcare
will be accessed and often delivered. Already many of us will have become
familiar with using the NHS App, booking appointments, ordering repeat
prescriptions and so on online. Virtual consultations, virtual wards and ‘hospital
at home’ services are all dependent upon web-based programmes. Indeed, many of
those 16 year olds today will have not known any different ways of accessing
help.
As more healthcare gets delivered
using new technology, the downside is it may be harming us as well. My iPhone
tells me every week how much time I have spent online. Without judging me, it
will tell me whether this is more or less than the week before. How many of us
now really dislike Zoom and Teams meetings, preferring instead to engage in
face2face meetings once more – I know I do! It is not just in our working lives
that real-life person to person interactions are becoming far less frequent. Don’t
get me wrong, I still believe there is still a place for virtual conversations.
I’m currently Facetiming my father every day as we work through my mum’s
hospitalisation, and it is the only practical way I can support him as they live
five hours away from me.
Arguably though, a growing reliance
on social media and other digital forms of communication, reduces that sense of
friendship, kinship and family life that comes from regular person to person encounters.
I think that this might be a growing contributor to those people who report
they often experience loneliness and isolation. The recently updated Community
Life Survey on Wellbeing and Loneliness (see here) reported that some three
million people in England often or always feel lonely. Interestingly, it the 16
year old cohort who feel lonely, more often than other age groups. Men reported
feeling lonely less often than women, but given men’s general reluctance to
share how they might be feeling, I don’t find this fact surprising. Twice as
many men than women struggle with their emotional intelligence. Loneliness can
often exacerbate this. Lonely people can also lose the sense that their life has
any meaning. Likewise, loneliness is often associated with poor nutrition,
sleeplessness and not taking adequate exercise. All of which are not great for
anyone’s health and wellbeing. Loneliness can increase the risk of premature
mortality by up to 65%.
So, I’m glad that the focus for
this year’s Men’s Health Week has opened up the debate as to both the usefulness
of new technologies and also the risk there might be to some folk’s health and
wellbeing. What of the chicken? Well, a story caught my eye last week, for no
other reason than it mentioned chickens. It was about the discovery of the ancient
underground city of Elengbu in Turkey by a man (whose name we don’t know) chasing
his chickens. The hens went into a hole in a wall of room being renovated.
After crawling through after them he discovered the entrance to an underground
city. This was in 1963. You can read more on this fascinating story here, as it
is only included in this blog so I could use it in the blog’s title. I know a
little contrived so please forgive me. What became of his adventurous chickens,
however, remains a mystery.
**This is an old video made from a previous life - it shows me as the original man with chickens - watch and chuckle
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