Promoting Men's Health Equity

Men's health equity is an area of men's health research and practice that combines the literature on men's health with that of health equity. More research is needed that describes how to intervene to promote men's health equity. This introduction to the American Journal of Men's Health special collection on promoting men's health equity was created to feature research that describes aspects of promising interventions that (a) are population-specific approaches that consider the unique biopsychosocial factors that affect the health of socially defined populations of men; or (b) use a comparative approach to close or eliminate gaps between socially defined groups of men and women and among socially meaningful groups of men that are unnecessary, avoidable, considered unfair and unjust, and yet are modifiable. The dozen papers from across the globe included in the special collection are grouped in three areas: conceptual approaches and reviews; formative research; and evaluation findings. The papers represent a diverse array of populations under the umbrella of men's health and a range of strategies to improve men's health from tobacco cessation to microfinance. The collection features a range of alternative masculinities that emerge from original research by the contributors that are used in novel ways in the interventions. This editorial argues that more qualitative research is needed to evaluate the intended and unintended findings from interventions. This editorial also highlights the benefits that men's health equity can gain from embracing dissemination and implementation science as a tool to systematically design, implement, refine, and sustain interventions.