Activities were carried out across China Tuesday to mark
National Men's Health Day.
The annual event, which was first marked in 2000 by the then
State Family Planning Commission, is designed to raise public
awareness of men's health issues.
Publicity activities were carried out nationally on male-centred
reproductive health care issues and the roles played by men in
family planning and social development were also discussed.
The former State Family Planning Commission first started pilot
work in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Dalian
in 2000, trying to integrate male health promotion and male
involvement in family planning into community-based cultural and
family planning activities.
Two years have passed, and one of the major achievements in
Dalian is the rate of condom use has increased by 13 percent.
The commission pledged?Tuesday to further extend the
program to benefit more families.
According to Chinese tradition, women take most of the
responsibilities regarding child bearing and rearing and they are
also the major users of contraception devices.
Data from the National Population and Family Planning Commission
shows that currently only 8.9 percent of men at reproductive age
have undergone male sterilization surgery, and only about 5 percent
of men use condoms for birth control purposes. In comparison, 46.3
percent of women at reproductive age use intra-uterine devices and
37.6 percent have undergone sterilization surgery.
"Men and women are the two components of human society, so they
should equally share the various social and family
responsibilities," said Zhao Baige, vice minister of the National
Population and Family Planning Commission.
In fact, there is a huge demand in society for more information
about male health.
A survey among 23,651 people in Dalian, Liaoning Province, found
that the demand for knowledge on male health issues ranks fourth
just next to female health care, menopause and contraception
methods.
Another investigation in Dalian among 2,582 men shows that 47
percent listed male reproductive health services as their first
demand, especially for people at ages among 36-40 and above 50
years old.
(China Daily October 29, 2003)