99

News

Single men pay a steep price on their health

Christian Wenande
December 13th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

On average, being alone costs a man seven years off his life

When she leaves, so does his ‘give a shit’ (photo: Pixabay)

A new survey by the Men’s Health Society has revealed that being single can have considerable adverse effects on the health of men.

According to the survey, 61 percent of men say their families are the fellowship to which they belong, and most men only have their partners to confide in. As a result, being single is equal to having a bad lifestyle with nobody to confide in.

“Women have many people to speak with regarding emotional issues, while many men only have their partner,” Svend Aage Madsen, a psychologist who is the head of the Men’s Health Society, told TV2 News.

“So if they don’t have a partner or their wives divorce them, men really are in the pits. We know that single men live a much worse lifestyle. They smoke more, drink more and exercise less. On average, being single costs a man seven years off his life span.”

Madsen contends that men are more dependent on their partners to give them a push and get their lives in order, although that could be changing now.

READ MORE: Denmark unhealthiest country in the Nordics

Times are a changin’
Martin Østergaard, a relationship therapist, argues that the culture of younger men has changed because they are being raised in a more unisex environment.

“Young men are being raised more and more like girls,” Østergaard told TV2 News.

“They are usually more open emotionally and talk more about how they are feeling. That generates some other forms of relationships that were previously reserved for women.”


Share

Most popular

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive The Daily Post

















Latest Podcast

A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”