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Development of the Asian Men's Health Report: challenges and opportunities

Nature Reviews Urology volume 14, pages 630–636 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Men have shorter life expectancy and higher mortality than women; however, only a few countries have dedicated men's health policies. Men's health reports can support the development of men's health policies. The 2013 Asian Men's Health Report (AMHR) systematically documents and compares the status of men's health across countries in Asia. The AMHR can be used as an exemplar to guide future men's health reports. The main challenges during creation of the AMHR were the lack of comprehensive health databases and the variety of data quality between countries. The AMHR revealed variations in mortality and morbidity across diseases, regions, and income groups, prompting a Delphi survey among men's health stakeholders to determine whether any dedicated men's health policies in Asia existed and to reach a consensus on the recommendations of men's health policies. The AMHR helped to promote men's health in Asia and across the world, generated research questions and collaborations, provided evidence to support development of men's health policies, identified the need to improve existing health databases, and developed a framework for the creation of other men's health reports.

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Figure 1: The development process of the Asian Men's Health Report (AMHR) and challenges encountered.
Figure 2: The definition of Asia in the Asian Men's Health Report (AMHR).
Figure 3: Process and challenges of the Asian Men's Health Delphi consensus online survey.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Wei Phin Tan for proofreading the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chin Hai Teo and Hui Meng Tan are at the Department of Primary Care Medicine, Chirk Jenn Ng, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Jalan Universiti, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.,

    Chirk Jenn Ng, Chin Hai Teo & Hui Meng Tan

  2. Christopher Chee Kong Ho is at the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, 56000 Batu 9 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.,

    Christopher Chee Kong Ho

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  1. Chirk Jenn Ng
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All authors researched data for, made substantial contribution to discussions of content, wrote the article and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Chirk Jenn Ng.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ng, C., Teo, C., Ho, C. et al. Development of the Asian Men's Health Report: challenges and opportunities. Nat Rev Urol 14, 630–636 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2017.93

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