The Notre Dame study highlights different trends in men's health in different cultures

The Notre Dame study highlights different trends in men's health in different cultures

Despite important advances in addressing health problems around the world, men have not benefited equally to women. Men's life expectancy has not increased as steadily as that of women in recent decades, and they are expected to live about five years less than women, according to 2021 global health data from the Human Mortality Database and the United Nations World Population Prospects. The gap in life expectancy between men and women persists around the world and is even increasing elsewhere.

At a time when health resources are scarce and must be used wisely, health professionals must identify points in men's lives where it makes most sense to intervene and advocate for preventative care to promote better health outcomes. Life transitions such as marriage and fatherhood are often key and critical points of intervention – and men often reap long-term health benefits from these family roles and have a lower risk of mortality than single men without children. But just as every person is different, so too do health concerns in communities around the world.

Research from the University of Notre Dame has found that not all life transitions lead to the same health outcomes and that not all global men's health guidelines should look the same from one country to another.

In most cases in the United States and Europe, men experience physical changes when they marry and start a family. These changes include an increase in waist circumference and body mass index - a phenomenon known as "dad bod," explained Lee Gettler, associate professor of anthropology and chair of the anthropology department at Notre Dame.

However, Gettler's research found that this phenomenon actually varies from society to society. His study was recently published in the journalsocial sciences and medicineused a large longitudinal dataset from the Philippines to examine how men's physical health changed during the transition to marriage or cohabitation and fatherhood. His and his co-authors' findings paint a different picture of Filipino men's health in the context of these major transitions than what is typically observed in the United States and Europe.

Gettler worked with scientists from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Philippines to conduct and compile the research.

“Our research shows that the links between physical health, marriage and fatherhood among Filipino men in Cebu are different than in countries like the United States or Europe,” said Gettler, who is also director of Notre Dame’s Department of Hormones, Health and Human Behavior, a laboratory and faculty affiliated with the Eck Institute for Global Health.

Gettler and his fellow researchers collected sociodemographic, health, behavioral and testosterone data from a long-term birth cohort study of Filipino men aged 21, 26 and (approximately) 31 between 2005 and 2014. The researchers found that their group of 607 men fared much better than men in other cultures at the same stages of life.

We do not find that married or cohabiting Filipino men have the same negative health trajectories in terms of physical well-being as the Filipino men who remained single in our study. They do not experience a deterioration in their health or show their father body as a result of partnering or fatherhood.”

Lee Gettler, associate professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Notre Dame

The study acknowledged the myriad reasons for these different results and said diet and physical activity, as well as the social dynamics surrounding the relationship, could explain these results. Additionally, the study found that the Cebu men who were stronger and more muscular in their early 20s were more likely to take on a partner later in life - a pattern the co-authors described as a model of "marital selection."

"Our results suggest that an emphasis on men's body composition during the transition to relationship and parenthood in Cebu and similar contexts may be less critical," the researchers wrote, compared to prioritizing other potential health concerns of men at the same life stage, such as mental health.

"The transition to fatherhood represents a promising developmental period for encouraging men to take care of their own health," the co-authors continued, with the additional long-term benefit being the overall health of the family. However, they cautioned that it is critical to target these promotional efforts and resources to the most pressing needs within a specific socio-ecological environment and community.

“In global public health, men's well-being is often secondary, even though men fare worse across several dimensions of health compared to women across the life course,” said Gettler. “But to close this gap, we need not only improved strategies and policies, but also a deeper understanding of the factors that influence men’s health in different contexts.”

“This means we cannot simply transfer a one-size-fits-all policy for men’s health and family life from one context to other areas around the world.”

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