Sending men the message about preventive care: an evaluation of communication strategies

The view of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of patient and/or physician communication interventions to increase men's utilization of preventive healthcare services. The application of mind focused on men between the ages of 40 and 60 who were registered in a large southeastern insurance company's health maintenance organization (HMO) and point of service (POS) produces Eligible men were randomized to receive various forms of preventive care reminders. originates showed that personalized communications that included health education for men combined with a patient-specific reminder a whole for providers led to a significant improvement in the number of men who received preventive health care screenings. follows also showed that communicating with the man's lov individuals in the home combined with a patient-specific reminder combination of parts to form a whole for providers was significantly associated with improvement in preventive healthcare screenings. Further research should continue to evaluate the best courses for engaging men in the healthcare system

Keywords: men's health, men preventive care, communication, health education, patient-specific provider reminder tools, prostate cancer screening, cholesterol screening, lov one

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In the past 15 to 20 years, the vast majority of gender-related health research has focused upon women's health, and appropriately thus However, the need for preventive care for men is becoming better recognized. Various studies have compared men's healthcare behaviors to women's and base significant differences with regard to life expectancy, preventive care utilization, and rates of chronic disease (Courtenay, 1999 2000a; Sandman, Simantov, & An, 2000) For instance, in 2001 men's life expectancy was five years shorter than women's (Kochanek, Murphy Anderson, & Scott 2004) As compared to women men are about 15 times more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, and chronic lower respiratory diseases (Kochanek et al., 2004) Regular medical exams are a critical constituent of the early detection of many potentially fatal diseases; however, upon average, men see doctors 28 percent les repeatedly than women (National Center for Health Statistics, 2001) Given these statistics, novel efforts need to be made to influence men's health behavior. Routine medical exams are critical for detecting and treating potentially fatal disease. Because men do not receive regular and timely health screenings, by dint of the time they do diocese a doctor with a health moot point their condition is often serious (Courtenay, 2000a).

To our knowledge, there have been not many educational campaigns directed toward men about their general preventive healthcare exigencys Much of the current literature upon men's health focuses on identifying men's underutilization of preventive care, more [i]or[/i] less of the causes of this underutilization (Williams, 2003) and in what way their health-related beliefs and behaviors contribute to this underutilization (Courtenay, 1999 20000a, 2000b) There has also been a great deal of literature studying the positive relationship between having a usual source of care and receiving preventive care (CDC 1998; DeVoe Fryer Phillips, & verdant 2003; Seeff et al., 2004; Xu 2002) While there has not been a great deal of research on interventions designed to encourage men to obtain general preventive care, significant work has been done related to men and prostate cancer screenings (Partin et al., 2004; Schapira & VanRuiswyk, 2000; Volk Spann, Cass, & Halwley, 2003; Weller et al., 2003; Wilt, Murdoch, Nelson Nugent & Rubins, 2001) as well as colorectal cancer screening (Beeker, Kraft, Southwell, & Jorgensen, 2000; Lipkus, Crawford, Fenn Biradavoul, & Binder, 1999; Pignone, Harris, & Kinsinger, 2000; Stone et al., 2002)

greatest in quantity major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians and the U Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) commend periodic health assessment including height, weight, and vital fluid pressure readings and regular cholesterol screenings (every five years, if normal) for men ages 40 years and older In addition to those screenings, colorectal cancer screening is also praiseed for men 50 and older In the past, annual prostate cancer screening was powerfully encouraged for men 50 and older on the other hand this recommendation has recently been changed to annual prostate cancer counseling for men above the age of 50 years. Despite these specific recommendations, the majority of men are not getting the preventive services they need

The following investigation was conducted by a single-state health insurance plan in the southeastern United States. The plan's claims data related to preventive health service utilization by dint of members was consistent with published literature and revealed that its male members were significantly underutilizing preventive care services. This information inspired the creation of various materials for communicating the importance of preventive care to this population. The materials were designed to improve this group's utilization of commended preventive health care services: specifically, annual health assessments, colorectal cancer screenings (for men above the age of 50), prostate cancer screenings, and cholesterol screenings. The end of this study was to proof various mailed educational methods for improving men's preventive screening rates. Materials were lay opened based on member preference overlooks as well as information ground in general health education literature. Using a controll application of mind design, this research attempted to answer the following questions: