Summary
This report uses the latest available data to summarise the health of males in Australia including health behaviours and risk factors, the impact of COVID-19 on health, chronic conditions, sexual and reproductive health, leading causes of disease burden and how males access health care.
Males experience more of their total disease burden due to dying early from disease and injury rather than from living with disease and injury.
Australian males experience different health outcomes to females. Leading causes of ill health and death for males include suicide and self-inflicted injuries, coronary heart disease and dementia.
Males are more likely to engage in risky health behaviours such as tobacco, alcohol and other substance use, physical inactivity and poor dietary choices. More males than females live with overweight and obesity. Males are also less likely to seek health care such as general practitioners (GP) and health professionals for their mental health.
Male health varies for some population groups including by socioeconomic area and for those living in rural and remote areas.
This report focuses on males aged 18 and over, and the term ‘males’ refers to males aged 18 and over, unless otherwise specified. To learn more about the health outcomes of females, see The health of Australia’s females. To learn more about the health of children see Australia’s children, and for the health of youths, see Australia’s Youth.
For more information on reporting of sex and gender at the AIHW, see AIHW data by sex and gender.
Data by sex and gender
This web report focuses on male health. A separate web report focuses on female health.
The use of the word ‘male’ in this report may relate to either sex or gender due to the nature of the data sources that we use. Most current data sources do not record sex and gender as separate concepts so it can be unclear which is the focus. For example, a survey may ask participants for their ‘sex’ or ‘gender’, but in each case, a participant can respond to the question according to how they identify, or how they interpret the question. In other instances, an interviewer conducting a survey may assume a person’s sex or gender rather than ask. Similarly, for administrative data, a health service provider may not ask a person to specify their sex or gender.
The AIHW is working towards including other categories when reporting by sex or gender. However, it is not always possible to do so as data on other categories may not be available. The AIHW is only able to report on the sex or gender categories that are available in the health service or program administrative records or survey that provide us with the underlying data.
For more information on reporting of sex and gender at the AIHW, see AIHW data by sex and gender.