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      Factors Affecting the Men’s Health Literacy in Malaysia

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      ScienceOpen Preprints
      ScienceOpen
      Health literacy, Malaysia, Men's health awareness, Men’s health checks
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            Abstract

            Men's average life expectancy in Malaysia is about 5 years less than women's. There are certain health hurdles that men encounter more than women. Men often have health issues that go undiagnosed or are ignored. Men in general feel that exhibiting emotion and grief makes them look vulnerable. This socially ingrained worldview has misled males and unconsciously educated them to believe that seeking medical attention demonstrates weakness. This may be an indication of the lack of health knowledge and inadequate use of health care services among male Malaysians. This research is an effort to investigate the factors affecting health literacy among men in Malaysia. Using HLS-M-Q18 and primary data of 251 men, this research applied a multiple regression model to examine the influence of various social and health-related factors. The findings show that education level, income, poor health condition, and regular medical consultancy increase the men’s health literacy in Malaysia. The findings of this study also indicate that BMI and religion, on the other hand, have no impact on health literacy levels in Malaysia. While men are given equal healthcare opportunities, addressing the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs associated with men's health typically needs more careful consideration. The findings of this study hope to assist the policy formulation regarding men's health awareness in Malaysia.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            ScienceOpen Preprints
            ScienceOpen
            28 June 2022
            Affiliations
            [1 ] Department of Science, Suami Sihat (M) Sdn Bhd, Selangor, Malaysia SuamiSihat.com.my
            Author notes
            Author information
            https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4521-3486
            Article
            10.14293/S2199-1006.1.SOR-.PPRJZGQ.v1
            459261d8-8392-48f6-b03c-115d88c86dca

            This work has been published open access under Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0 , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Conditions, terms of use and publishing policy can be found at www.scienceopen.com .

            History
            : 28 June 2022

            The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
            Education
            Health literacy,Malaysia,Men's health awareness,Men’s health checks

            Comments

            2022-09-08 23:11 UTC
            +1

            The author tries to learn more about what influences men's health literacy in Malaysia. The study used a multiple regression model to analyze the impact of a variety of social and health-related variables. Results demonstrate that male health literacy in Malaysia is elevated by factors like more education, higher income, worse health, and more frequent medical consultation. This research also shows that there is no correlation between body mass index or religious affiliation and health literacy in Malaysia.

            This was an interesting read based on a solid investigation. There was an adequate number of samples used, and the procedures were effective. There was a demonstrable scientific and pragmatic contribution to addressing the "gender gap in healthcare."

            I see no flaws in the techniques, data analysis, results, and in most of the arguments.

            Nonetheless, I have the following recommendations:

            1) The author has pointed out that the understanding of men's health established from Western research may not be useful or acceptable for addressing men's health concerns in the local setting in Malaysia, a multiethnic country with varying cultural norms. This, however, is not a very compelling argument. Just because it is a multiethnic country does not preclude us from using the results of research conducted in other nations. The author, in my opinion, needs to elaborate the reasoning

            2). The author noted in the introduction section that men are more likely to partake in alcoholic beverages and smoke cigarettes. It would be more thorough if the author included these habits in the equation and determined whether or not they can explain men's health literacy.

            3). The introduction section was devoted to discuss the male health issue. I urge the author to address literacy and awareness as well in that section.

            4). I find the results a bit short and the conclusions a bit verbose.

            5). Neither the conclusion nor the results section discusses why BMI and religion were not significant.

            2022-09-08 23:11 UTC
            +1
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