The Chief Medical Health Officer for Northern Health has just released a report detailing the health and wellbeing of men in Northern British Columbia. The report took into account a range of factors that influence health, including behavior, lifestyle and choices relating to such things as social pressures to media influences.

The results indicate that alcohol and tobacco consumption per capita is higher in northern Canadian men, as are road traffic injuries and per capita occupational deaths and injuries. High school completion rates, however, are lower. Men were also found to be more likely to be injured or killed because of suicide, disease, unintentional injury and intentional violence-a differential that persists throughout their lives.

The statistics showed that men tend to access health services less often than women throughout their lives. Furthermore, when they do access health services their conditions have usually progressed to a far severe degree of complexity.

"The statistics in northern B. C. reaffirm the global observation that men's health, in general, lags behind that of women, despite the apparent social, political and economic advantages that men enjoy", the report stated.

The report's publication marks the beginning of an initiative to gather greater input from men and communities in the north, on how primary care services can be improved. This effort will be furthered during the Men's Health Conference in 2011, which will be organized by Northern Health.