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Men’s Health

In most parts of the world, health outcomes among boys and men continue to be substantially worse than among girls and women (WHO,2014). There is growing  awareness and concern about the burden of ill health experienced by men in Northern Ireland (MHFI, 2011). Life expectancy at birth in 2015 – 2017 was 78.5 years for males and 82.3 years for females. Healthy life expectancy at birth in 2015 – 2017 was 59.1 years for males and 60.3 years for females (DOH, 2018).

  • 20% of males smoke. (down from 25% in 2010/2011)
    17% of females smoke. (down from 23% in 2010/2011)
  • Over four-fifths of males (83%) were drinkers with a tenth of males (9%) reporting that they thought they drank quite a lot or heavily. Almost a fifth of male drinkers (16%) drank on 3 or more days per week.
    Three-quarters of females (76%) were drinkers, with (2%) reporting that they thought they drank quite a lot of heavily. A tenth of female drinkers (10%) drank on 3 or more days per week.
  • 42% of males were overweight.
    32% of females were overweight.  (DOH, 2020)
  • Suicide rates per 100,000 people in UK and Ireland was reported at 28 Men in Northern Ireland.
    Suicide rates per 100,000 people in UK and Ireland was reported at 9.5 Women in Northern Ireland. (Samaritans 2019)

Men’s Health in Numbers

Cover of Men's Health in Numbers study

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Men’s Health Forum undertook ‘Men’s Health in Numbers’, funded by the Health Service Executive’s Health and Wellbeing Division, which sought to produce:

  1. A comprehensive Trends Report that describes, in detail, changes in significant markers of men’s health on the island of Ireland in the last twenty years.
  2. An infographically-driven Men’s Health Report Card that provides a lay person’s synopsis of contemporary key men’s health statistics in the Republic of Ireland.

You can view the resulting report on this project or watch the webinar below: