2024-10-25 16:00:00
Can masculinity be a predisposing factor for heart disease? An investigation published in ‘Open JAMA Networknotes that boys and men who engage in behaviors more in line with stereotypical gender norms in their social environment appear to be less likely to acknowledge having been diagnosed with or receiving treatment for cardiovascular disease risk factors.
The study of University of Chicago (USA) has seen that sociocultural pressures to adopt a male gender identity are linked to more harmful health behaviors, such as the use of drugs and the refusal of therapies and medical recommendations.
Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. The curious thing is that there are others modifiable and preventable compared to many other diseases and causes of death.
However, it is important to note that modification and prevention depend on early diagnosis and mitigation of risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol.
Unfortunately, some estimate that 75% of young adults who have risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol are unaware of them.
And the numbers are accentuated among men.
“Gender and male sex are known to be associated with less help-seeking for a range of health problems, particularly mental health and primary care. But previous studies have not more deeply investigated the social processes through which masculine gender is created iteratively through an interaction between the individual and his environment,” he says. Nathaniel Glasserlead author of the article.
In this work, he adds, “we use innovative measurement techniques to observe the construction of male gender and how this is associated with the prevention of cardiovascular disease.”
Glasser and his colleagues analyzed the data from Add health, a nationally representative longitudinal study that collected health measures and survey responses from more than 12,300 people at multiple points over 24 years (1994-2018).
They quantified Add Health participants’ masculine gender expressiveness by identifying a subset of survey questions that they answered very differently from participants who identified as men and women, and subsequently measured the extent to which participants’ responses males to those questions coincided with those of their peers of the same sex.
Y chromosome
«When we talk about gender expression, we don’t analyze anything physiological that could be influenced by the Y chromosome – explains Glasser – We focus exclusively on the behaviors, preferences and beliefs that the participants themselves manifest, and the degree to which these behaviors and attitudes “Resemble to those of their same-sex peers”.
Focusing on cardiovascular disease, the researchers compared biological measures from Add Health with health-related survey responses to see whether men with detectable risk factors, such as hypertension, reported receiving diagnoses or treatment for those conditions .
They found that men who showed more stereotypical gender expression were significantly less likely to report that a healthcare provider had ever talked to them about certain cardiovascular disease risk conditions. Even when these men reported having previously received a diagnosis, they were still less likely to report taking medications to treat these conditions.
The risk factors examined in the study are those that would normally be detected by screening tests that are part of basic primary care.
Social pressures cause behavioral differences that influence cardiovascular risk mitigation efforts
However, it is unclear whether the decline in reported diagnoses and treatments among those with greater male gender expression indicates that men are not getting screened, that they are not paying attention to their diagnoses even when they are screened, or that they simply downplay their diagnoses when asked.
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 pressures are generating behavioral differences that impact cardiovascular risk mitigation efforts, which is concerning because it could lead to worse long-term health outcomes,” Glasser says.
Ultimately, the authors believe the implications of this research go far beyond the question of traditional masculinity.
«We are seeing how the pressures to transmit the identityWhether rooted in gender, race, sexuality or something else, they influence health behaviors, Glasser says. Adapting and achieving a sense of belonging is a complicated task, and we firmly believe that greater sympathy, empathy and social patience towards others who undertake this task would be good for people’s health.
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