Men's Health Week 2019: By numbers

#menshealthweek - the key numbers in men's health

How many goals has Harry Kane scored this season? How many Grand Prix has Lewis Hamilton won? How fast is the new iphone?*

Men are supposedly obsessed with numbers but when it comes to our own health, there are quite a few we don’t know. Men’s Health Week 2019 takes up that challenge.

So the first number we need to know is 10: Men’s Health Week begins on 10th June and ends the 16th.

The Men’s Health Forum are raising awareness of:

7 numbers that all men need to know and
5 statistics that policy-makers and service-providers need to know if they're to reach men effectively.

For men who want to get to know their numbers better, the Forum is also publishing Man MOT, a new interactive manual that enables men to check their own health and then challenges them to do better. Man MOT has 25 health challenges in total.

New manual Free Quiz Free Posters

Key numbers for men:

37 - a waist size of 37 inches or above puts you at increased of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Learn more.
150 - men should aim for 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. Learn more.
5 - we should aim to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Learn more.
14 - maximum 14 units of alcohol a week. Learn more.
10 - cigarette smokers die 10 years younger on average than non-smokers. Learn more.
120/80 - normal blood pressure. Learn more.
75 - 75% of suicides (3 out of 4) are by men. Learn more.

Key numbers for policy-makers and service providers:

1 man in 5 dies before the age of 65
2 men in 5 die before the age of 75
3 out of 4 suicides are by men
Men in unskilled work are 3 times more likely to take their own lives than men in senior management
The richest men live on average 10 years longer than the least well-off men. Richer area = longer life. How does your local authority do?
More stats

Our message:

One man in five dies before he is old enough to retire. Together, by knowing our numbers, we can change this statistic.

Martin Tod, Chief Executive of the Men’s Health Forum said:

Whether it's targets for treatments or percentages of patients, health care is drowning in numbers. Which ones really matter?

For Men's Health Week 2019, the Men’s Health Forum has pulled out the key numbers. We have seven numbers we want all men to know and five statistics we want everyone working in health care to know including the male life-expectancy gap in their area.

At the Men's Health Forum, men of all ages, policy-makers and service-providers alike all ask what they can do to improve men's health. Knowing a few simple numbers can make all the difference.

To take it further, our new interactive manual 'Man MOT- DIY checks and challenges' helps men put those numbers to work monitoring their own health and living healthier lives.

> Get the man manual

Man MOT is a new interactive manual built around knowing your numbers, that enables men to check their own health and then challenges them to do better. Easy to use - 25 health challenges in total.

> Free Men's Health By Numbers quiz

12 key questions about men's health - the perfect way to learn the key numbers. Great fun in groups or test yourself. East to use PDF slideshow.

> Download the posters

We have posters highlighting various themes for the week available FREE to download in our shop

Share the hashtags:

In all your social media use the hashtags…

#menshealthweek #menshealthbynumbers

* At the time of writing, Harry Kane had scored 27 goals in the 2018-19 season, Lewis Hamilton had won 76 Grand Prix and the latest iPhone A12 Bionic processor was supposedly 13% faster.

Links to previous Men's Health Weeks

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Men's Health By Numbers

Men's Health By Numbers