The Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of East­ern Caribbean States (OECS) Com­mis­sion are ad­vanc­ing ef­forts to ad­dress health chal­lenges faced by men in the OECS and across the wider Caribbean.

The ini­tia­tive co­in­cides with the ob­ser­vance of Men’s Health Month in June and seeks to pro­mote aware­ness and en­cour­age men to pri­or­i­tize their health.

Health da­ta in­di­cates that men in the re­gion face sig­nif­i­cant health dis­par­i­ties. Ac­cord­ing to the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion's (PA­HO) STEPS sur­vey (2022), on­ly 32 per­cent of men aged 25-64 re­port­ed un­der­go­ing pre­ven­tive check-ups, com­pared to 58 per­cent of women. In Saint Lu­cia, men are 40 per­cent more like­ly to die from car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease than women. In St. Kitts and Nevis, non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases ac­count for 83 per­cent of all deaths, with men ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a 30 per­cent high­er rate of pre­ma­ture mor­tal­i­ty.