Top stories of the year on men's health

According to the Pan American Health Organization, 36% of deaths among men are preventable compared with 19% of deaths among women.

This year, Healio has covered research on the health risks that men face and how physicians can improve the health and longevity of their male patients. The most popular stories offered insights into treatment courses for men with UTI, prostate cancer screening measures, the benefits of plant-based diets and the impact of COVID-19 on men.

Read the top 10 stories about men’s health below:

Study supports shorter antibiotic course in men with UTI

A 7-day course of ciprofloxacin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole for presumed, symptomatic UTI in afebrile men was noninferior to 14 days of treatment, a randomized trial showed. Read more.

Data suggest ‘potential overuse’ of prostate cancer screening

More than one in four men aged 55 to 69 years and one in three men aged 70 years and older underwent prostate cancer screening in the previous 12 months, “suggesting potential overuse among some men,” researchers reported. Read more.

‘Good news’: Healthful plant-based diets lower risk for urological conditions in men

Men who ate healthy plant-based diets lowered their risk for prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction, according to data from three abstracts that were presented during the virtual American Urological Association meeting. Read more.

Daily e-cigarette use linked to erectile dysfunction

Men who used e-cigarettes daily were more than twice as likely to report erectile dysfunction than those who never used e-cigarettes, according to findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Read more.

COVID-19 reduces fertility in men, study suggests

COVID-19 may negatively affect sperm quality and reduce fertility in men, and the magnitude of that effect may depend on the severity of disease, researchers reported. Read more.

Q&A: Proper testosterone deficiency therapy starts with correct diagnosis

Testosterone deficiency — defined by the American Urological Association as a testosterone level of 300 ng/dL or fewer — occurs in as many as 39% of middle-aged and older U.S. men, data in Translational Andrology and Urology show. Read more.

Men more likely to test positive for COVID-19, have worse outcomes

Men are more likely than women to test positive for COVID-19, and to require ICU admission, mechanical ventilation and in-hospital mortality with the novel coronavirus, according to research published in PLoS One. Read more.

Yoga improves quality of life, immune response in men with prostate cancer

Yoga therapy improved quality of life, immune responses and expression of inflammatory cytokines in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer, according to results of a pilot randomized controlled trial. Read more.

YouTube lacks quality information on prostate cancer screening in Black men

The overall quality of YouTube videos that researchers watched about prostate cancer screening in Black men was suboptimal, a recent analysis showed. Read more.

Men have 60% higher risk for death, worldwide study shows

Men aged 50 years or older had a 60% higher mortality risk than women aged 50 years or older, in part due to smoking and CVD rates, a worldwide study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed. Read more.

Reference:

Pan American Health Organization. Men’s health. https://www.paho.org/journal/en/special-issues/mens-health. Accessed Dec. 27, 2021.