We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IRISH MEN ARE at greater risk of dying from cancer than women.
A report by the Irish Cancer Society showed that men had significantly higher incidence rates of bowel, lung, bladder and stomach cancer ranging from 1.6 to three times the rate of incidence in females.
Even though females were more likely to develop melanoma of the skin, males were more likely to die from it.
Male survival was also significantly lower than female survival for lung cancer.
Men are less likely to seek medical help, which leads to late diagnosis and lower survival chances. Many of these findings can also be explained by lifestyle factors such as traditionally higher rates of tobacco use in men, excess alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, higher levels of obesity and low levels of physical activity.
Lower socio-economic status is also associated with a higher risk of developing a number of cancers.
Dr. Noel Richardson director of the Centre for Men’s Health at the Institute of Technology Carlow said the “report gives a solid evidence base for what action needs to be taken by both policy makers and service providers so they can engage more effectively with all men, to improve health and well-being and to bring down the incidence of cancer and the number of men dying from cancer.”
Launched for Men’s Health Week 2013, the report was commissioned by the Irish Cancer Society at the Centre for Men’s Health, Institute of Technology Carlow and the National Cancer Registry of Ireland.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
No health minister will have the guts to say “we need to adjust our spending to focus a little less on women and a little more on men”
But there’s no evidence of it being a deliberate policy to spend more on women than men. Women are more likely to demand services (aka “seek medical help”), which means they are more likely to get them. It’s not very clear what the report’s authors want us to do about it, to be honest.
This is simply a product of our evolutionary past. Men are greater risk takers than women and are also more expendable. For a million years humans lived in small relatively isolated tribes of 100-150 individuals. Men engaged in hunting activities and therefore undertook a higher level of risk than the woman back in the camp. Losing a few men (whilst hunting) would not overly affect the fertility rate of the tribe. Losing a few women would have a much bigger impact (1 man can make 2 women pregnant at the same time but 2 men can’t impregnate the same woman at the same time). I’m not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t do anything about it, but that there will always be a difference in men/women mortality rates.
Chuck
It’s much worse than you can imagine. Virtually one hundred percent of what I call the ” variable dollar” is spent exclusively on women’s Health including screening and diagnostics to the complete exclusion of men. Even when Voluntary Organisations are funded by the HSE to provide support for patients you will find that virtually all of this goes to women’s groups and charities. It might seem a bit over the top but in reality Irish men are literally dying while women survive because of the bias shown by everyone from Policy makers to Health providers. About time we changed and if it’s the same dollar then we need to take half away from those currently receiving it.
I’d love to know if the people who red-thumbed rick’s post disagree with the policy or with him pointing it out
I blame male doctors wanting a bit of b**b, frankly.
if the help is there,,do u know we have no oncology surgeon in this country,,
Men.. Always getting the thin end of the wedge.
Cancer doesn’t care whether you’re rich or poor, male or female, adult or child, what race you are or what religion you follow. It is the COMMON enemy. Everyone should be focusing on that nothing else.
Not necessarily. Cancer isn’t one disease – it’s a whole host of diseases. In order to cure it or prevent it you have to look at who it affects, that includes differentiating between men and women, adults and children, rich and poor. For screening purposes finding out this exact information provides quicker access to diagnostic services for those who are at risk. Saying cancer doesn’t care whether you’re a man or woman or whatever – fine, except it does care. You can’t get ovarian cancer if you’re a man, you can’t get testicular cancer if you’re a woman. Cancers require conditions to grow, and many of those conditions do depend on some of those exact differences that you mention.
Not surprising really, we have cervical and breast cancer awareness advertisments and programmes all the time, as well as a whole host of other programmes aimed at women! Men have a patronising booklet where the man is rigged up as a car with a mechanic on him, as if men are so thick they need to have it broken down to vehicle comparisons! Men suffer from
the effects of HPV as women do through penile and other cancers, and yet men don’t get the HPV vaccine, so that is at least one example of where women are targeted exclusively over men in relation to an earlier point someone made!
Irish men are more likely to get those cancers than Irish women, or women generally?
Woo? :(
Glad I’m not a man !!
Lower socio economic status means you are more likely to get cancer? Loads of rich people get cancer too ya know and eat bad food and have really bad diets. Terrible statement to make.
Regardless of accuracy?
Working classes are more prone to bouts of alcoholism and more than likely are eating cheaper food filled with chemicals and probably GM to boot.
So yeah I could easily believe that richer people who can afford the better things in life are less likely to have cancer.
But they don’t give us the accuracy?
The well off are more likely to attend a doctor earlier as they will have the money to pay.
Danny devito, alcoholic, George best, alcoholic, Shane Mc Gowan, alcoholic. All three examples of very wealthy people and all have bad diets. Just because you can afford a good diet does not mean you are going to go ahead and live on a good diet. The statement is flawed unless there was some accurate worldwide survey done to prove otherwise.
Wealthier – More likely to have private healthcare.
Gyms – More affordable for wealthier people.
Food – Wealthier people less likely to purchase cheapest or “value” food which lacks nutrients and minerals.
Alcoholism is predominately lower social class.
Logic good sir. Use it.
And what study have you done to prove this? All of the above is fine but just having lots money does not give you the DISCIPLINE to actually do all of this. There is one thing money can’t buy and that’s self control.
http://epubs.rcsi.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=psycholrep
Lower Socio-economic groups likely to drink regularly, binge drink, smoke, receive injuries, commit suicide and eat less healthy.
Stephen
The three examples of wealthy people all came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and acquired wealth in later life when it was too late to undo the damage.
Stephen
The three examples of wealthy people you gave all came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and acquired wealth in later life when it was too late to undo the damage.
Michael Douglas is a great example of this. Stage 4 throat cancer & still walking aRound. His immense wealth obviously afforded him the best treatment & meds money can buy.
I wonder if people would shut up about cancer studies and not have it percolating in people’s mind would we have a reduction in cases.Studies are only as hood as the data used in calculating the findings.
Not surprising at all.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say