Men and COVID-19: How are men affected by COVID-19 and the response can better include them?

Professor Maria Lohan began by providing context for her discussion, remarking that the UK government requested insight into the lower levels of adherence to public health guidelines displayed by men. Her team first sought out to confirm the problem through reviewing literature and discovered heterogeneous findings: some gender differences in social distancing, and reasonably strong evidence for men and low adherence to both hand-washing and isolation. The focus then shifted to behaviour change, and a workshop with experts on men’s health was held. Generalisable strategies that were developed: “Show men positively doing the right thing in the company of other men and others”. “Make adherence visible” in terms of media messaging through a photograph of men adhering. “Make adherence desirable ”. “Use the science” Infrastructure is an important enabler, for example, mandatory face masks leads to higher adherence for men. Professor Lohan highlights the next step being legislation, especially to protect high-risk occupations