Griffith said its coming reflects concern about the large number of men dying from lifestyle diseases.

Lifestyle diseases include heart disease, stroke, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and diseases associated with smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse.

"Our primary goal is to reduce the incidence of mortality brought about by chronic illnesses that affect men," Griffith told the SATURDAY SUN.

He referred to prostate and vascular diseases as well as hypertension and diabetes.

"We believe a lot of these can be minimised through education of males and motivating men to the point where we could have early screening, early detection and, hopefully, early treatment, of diseases," he said.

Education

Barbados already has one men's group focusing on education – the Men's Educational Support Association (MESA) – and a number of men's health groups connected to the polyclinics.

Griffith said that establishing the new association was not intended to minimise MESA's role. But, he reported "tremendous" support in the polyclinics for NMHA.

"When a man's health is compromised, the welfare of the entire family is affected," he pointed out.

"Too many of our men are succumbing to illnesses and leaving their children and spouses to fend for themselves."

More men had become health-conscious in recent times, but there was still a lot of scope for improvement, he said.

"I am very concerned about the lifestyle of younger men in particular and the extent to which that lays the foundation for illnesses.

"Some young men are engaged in heavy consumption of alcohol, and Crop-Over is not going to make it easier to resist."

Griffith also said a wide cross section of Barbadians had been consulted about launching the NMHA.

He added that "most likely" he would head the association until it developed its own legal structure. (TY)

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