Here’s How Masculinity Favors Heart Disease in Men

A study from the University of Chicago (USA) found that sociocultural pressure to adopt a male gender identity is associated with behaviors that are more detrimental to health, such as drug use and refusal of treatments and medical advice.

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The most interesting thing is that there are more of them modifiable and preventable than many other diseases and causes of death.

However, it is important to note that modification and prevention depend on early identification and mitigation of risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol.

Unfortunately, some estimates suggest that 75% of young people who have risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol do not know it.

And this figure is especially pronounced among men.

“Gender and male sex are known to be associated with lower help-seeking rates for a variety of health issues, particularly mental health and primary care. But previous research has not more thoroughly examined the social processes by which male gender is created iteratively through interactions between an individual and his environment,” says Nathaniel Glasser, lead author of the paper.

In this work, he adds, “we are using innovative measurement techniques to look at male sex structure and how it relates to the prevention of cardiovascular disease.”

Glasser and colleagues analyzed data from Add Health, a nationally representative longitudinal study that collected health data and responses from more than 12,300 people at various points over 24 years (1994–2018).

They quantified Add Health participants’ male gender expression by identifying the subset of survey questions that were answered most differently by participants who identified as male and female, and then measured the extent to which male participants’ responses to these questions matched the participants’ responses. their peers of the same sex.

Y chromosome

“When we talk about gender expression, we’re not looking at anything physiological that the Y chromosome might influence,” Glasser explains. “We focus solely on the behaviors, preferences, and beliefs that participants themselves exhibit and the extent to which those behaviors are expressed.” and the attitude “They are similar to their same-sex peers.”

Focusing on cardiovascular disease, the researchers compared Add Health’s biological measures with health-related survey responses to see whether men with detectable risk factors, such as high blood pressure, reported receiving a diagnosis or treatment for these diseases.

They found that men who exhibited more stereotypical gender expression were significantly less likely to report that a health care provider had ever talked to them about certain cardiovascular risk conditions. Even when these men reported having previously been diagnosed, they were still less likely to report taking medications to treat these conditions.

The study looked at risk factors that are typically identified through screening tests that are part of basic primary health care.

However, it is unclear whether the decline in reported diagnoses and treatments among those with higher male gender expression indicates that men are not getting screened, that they are not paying attention to their diagnosis even when they are screened, or that they are simply downplaying it. their diagnoses when asked about them.

Whatever the reason, the authors write, the findings highlight a missed opportunity to prevent or alleviate serious cardiovascular disease later in life.

“Our hypothesis is that social pressure creates behavioral differences that influence efforts to reduce cardiovascular risk, which is concerning because it may lead to worse long-term health outcomes,” says Glasser.

Ultimately, the authors believe that the implications of this study go far beyond the issue of traditional masculinity.

“We see how pressure to transfer personalityWhether they are related to gender, race, sexuality or something else, they influence health behavior, Glasser says. Fitting in and achieving a sense of belonging is a difficult task, and we strongly believe that greater compassion, empathy and social patience towards others taking on this task will be beneficial to people’s health.