Main description:

This book deals with the often overlooked social determinants of male health. Adopting a life course perspective, MacDonald looks at the health of young boys, the health of fathers and men in families of different kinds, men after retirement, and employment and its impact on the health of men. The book is conceived as showing the importance of theory: how we see "solutions" to men's health is largely determined by how we see the "problem" or issues involved and the book proposes a different way of seeing these issues. Beginning with are reflection on health itself, the book goes on to discuss the common theories around masculinity which dominate discourse on male health before utilising Antonovsky's ideas on salutogenesis to inform the rest of the book. The focus of the book is not only on what is wrong (the pathogenic and the pathologies), but on what builds men's health and resilience, and what is already health-enhancing in their lives (the "salutogenic").

The Social Determinants of Male Health will be of interest to students and scholars of men's health, gender studies, the sociology of health and public health.

Contents:

Introduction

1. Health

2. Understanding men's health: The dominant explanation: "masculinity"

3. A way forward: A salutogenic and social determinants approach to male health

4. The social determinants of male health through the life course: the beginnings

5. Settling into life: partnering and work

6. Finding meaning later in life

Conclusion