Use humour to promote weight loss to men, pharmacists agree
Men's Health Forum and PHE have published a report to advise those delivering weight-loss services to men
|
Pharmacists have backed a charity's call to use humour to encourage men to join weight loss programmes. The Men's Health Forum said humorous promotional materials made weight loss services "more attractive" to men, in guidance for service providers and commissioners published in collaboration with Public Health England (PHE) on Thursday (November 13). The charity said men were "much less likely" than women to participate in weight loss programmes, despite the fact that a higher proportion of men were overweight. "Humour, banter and camaraderie" helped men taking part in these programmes to "build positive relationships" with each other and promoted adherence to the schemes, it said. Ravi Sharma, primary care pharmacist at healthcare provider DMC Healthcare, said pharmacists needed to get the message across in any way that made men feel comfortable. "It's about hitting a balance between having a laugh with your patients but being professional and serious at the same time," Mr Sharma said. Paul Mayberry, managing director of the Mayberry Pharmacy chain in Wales, said the report highlighted the need for pharmacists to provide weight loss opportunities "tailored around people's lifestyles". Through its healthchecks in Wetherspoon pubs last year, which won the C+D Award for Public Health Initiative of the year 2014, Mayberry staff found a quarter of male participants were obese. Mr Mayberry said having friends and onlookers taking part in the checks created a "different momentum" to a normal healthcare setting. "There is some truth to humour and camaraderie being important to supporting and encouraging target audiences to take part in health-related drives and programmes," he told C+D. Birmingham contractor Depak Shah, who took part in NHS Birmingham Public Health's My Choice weight management programme in 2012, agreed men and women approached weight loss differently. It was difficult to get men "on side" for these services, said Mr Shah, owner of Shah Pharmacy, who suggested explaining the health implications of being overweight later in life. The Men's Health Forum said in its guidance that men could regard weight loss programmes as "feminised spaces" and felt awkward discussing their weight in a group. Some men did not care if they were overweight and tended to be more cynical about health messages, said the charity, whose guidance was based on research into male obesity interventions led by the University of Aberdeen earlier this year. Men responded better to personalised programmes that included an element of behaviour change, it highlighted. Support from a family member also helped men and their motivation could be "adversely affected" if their family did not take their efforts to lose weight seriously, the charity added.
|
||||||
