The Program for Men’s Health Equity (PMHE) aims to create a world where men live as long, healthy, and fulfilling lives as possible.
“It’s startling how many people are offended by the idea that men are suffering. Others say the longevity gap is simply due to biology — and we should just accept it. But I think we can do more.”
“It has become clear to me that the problems of boys and men are structural in nature, rather than individual, but rarely treated as such. The problem with men is typically treated as the problem of men. It is men who must be fixed, one man or boy at a time.”
– Richard Reeves, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters, and What to Do About It (2022)
The Program for Men’s Health Equity was established in the Fall of 2025, but it builds on more than 15 years of men’s health research to inform programs and policies to help men live longer and healthier lives. The PMHE examines how commercial, political, economic, and other structural factors interact in distinct ways to inform novel, asset-based strategies to improve men’s health and reduce inequities among men.
However, references to men’s health make invisible the inequalities associated with class, race, disability, sexuality, and ethnicity, although these are powerful influences on health and illnesses. Similarly, health equity has not adequately considered or addressed the unique needs of men in programs or policies aimed at achieving its aims. Men’s health equity has emerged from the gap between men’s health and health equity, focusing on ways to improve the health of socially marginalized men. By simultaneously considering how biological, psychological, social, and structural factors affect health, men’s health equity is the science of addressing the needs of population groups of men whose poor health is rooted in their social position (Griffith, Bruce, & Thorpe, Jr., 2019).
The PMHE works nationally and globally to improve men’s health and well-being, and to reduce unjust yet modifiable gaps between women and men and among groups of men. The Program is committed to identifying and implementing local, national, and global policies to increase men’s life expectancy and reduce premature mortality. We focus primarily on policy and prevention and implementation science strategies to reduce men’s risk, morbidity, and mortality from heart disease and cancer (prostate, lung, and colorectal).
We have been leaders in advancing the use of intersectionality and syndemics in men’s health, understanding manhood as a driver of men’s health, and explaining how the full range of drivers shape patterns of health (e.g., COVID-19) and well-being. We have illustrated that simultaneously considering race/ethnicity, gender, age, and other factors is critical for identifying groups of men in need of policy and programmatic attention.
The Program for Men’s Health Equity is especially committed to improving life expectancy and reducing premature mortality (i.e., dying before age 75) of Black American and other groups of men who do not live to this global standard. The Program team develops and evaluates community-based and technology-based strategies to reduce men’s cancer, diabetes, and heart disease risk, morbidity, and mortality.
The Program for Men’s Health Equity welcomes any inquiries; if you would like to contact use regarding an upcoming project, collaboration opportunity, presentation or event, please use the ‘contact us’ button to fill out the request form.
