ABSTRACT
Recent studies of men’s health have focused on four key areas: (a) health conditions that are unique to men, (b) diseases or illnesses that are common among men, (c) health outcomes with risk factors that are different for men and women, and (d) health conditions requiring distinct interventions for improving men’s health and well-being (Meryn & Young, 2010; Thorpe, Griffith, Gilbert, Elder, & Bruce, 2016). The increase in scholarship in these areas has resulted in marked progress in our understanding of what contributes to better health for men. Despite these advances, evidence shows that men remain at greater risk for mortality compared to women in every age group, for all causes (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS], 2006). Premature death among ethnic minority men, especially African American men, accounts for a significant proportion of mortality disparities by sex (Thorpe, Richard, Bowie, LaVeist, & Gaskin, 2013). In 2015, the life expectancy was 71.8 years for African American men compared with 76.3 for White men, and 81.1 and 78.1 for White and African American women, respectively (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017).
