Activities were carried out across China Tuesday to mark National Men's Health Day.

The annual event, which was first marked in 2000 by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, is designed to raise public awareness of men's health issues.

Publicity activities were carried out nationally on male-centred reproductive health care issues and the roles played by men in family planning and social development were also discussed.

The National Population and Family Planning Commission first started pilot work in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Dalian in 2000, trying to integrate male health promotion and male involvement in family planning into community-based cultural and family planning activities.

Two years have passed, and one of the major achievements in Dalian is that rate of condom use has increased by 13 per cent.

The commission pledged yesterday to further extend the programme to benefit more families.

According to Chinese tradition, women takes most of the responsibilities regarding child bearing and rearing and they are also the major users of contraception.

Data from the National Population and Family Planning Commission showed that currently only 8.9 per cent of males at reproductive age underwent male sterilization surgery, and only about 5 per cent of males use condoms for birth control purposes, in comparison, 46.3 per cent of women at reproductive age use intra-uterine devices and 37.6 per cent have undergone sterilization surgery.

"Men and women are the two components of human society, so they should equally share the various social and family responsibilities,'' said Zhao Baige, vice-minister of the Population and Family Planning Commission.

In fact, there is a huge demand in society for more information about male health.

A survey among 23,651 people in Dalian, Liaoning Province found out that the demand for knowledge on male health issues ranks the fourth just next to female health care, the menopause and contraception methods.

Another investigation in Dalian among 2,582 men shows that 47 per cent listed male reproductive health services as their first demand, especially for people at ages between 36-40 and above 50 years old.

Close

Today's Top News		Top National News
+Men's health issues underlined ( 2003-10-29) +NPC approves road traffic, securities laws ( 2003-10-29) +EU, China to sign up to Galileo agreement ( 2003-10-29) +Bombings in Iraq strongly condemned ( 2003-10-29) +Scientific assessment procedures necessary in bio-product business ( 2003-10-29)		+Men's health issues underlined ( 2003-10-29) +NPC approves road traffic, securities laws ( 2003-10-29) +Bombings in Iraq strongly condemned ( 2003-10-29) +EU, China to sign up to Galileo agreement ( 2003-10-29) +China plans to send three people into space ( 2003-10-28)