Men's health promotion by general practitioners in a workplace setting

A project to promote men's health through diabetes education and screening was undertaken throughout rural industries in 1999/2000 in the south-west of Western Australia. Five hundred and twenty-five men aged 40-65 years participated from 27 industries. Sixty-four per cent of these men were identified at high-risk of developing diabetes and were referred to their general practitioner (GP) for follow-up. Seventy-six per cent of those at-risk visited their GP and hence the strategy adopted has been appropriate in engaging men in the preventive concept of seeking care, that is, getting them to attend their GP when they only have the risk factors but not the disease. However, men were left short of knowing how to achieve a change in their lifestyle behaviour and take appropriate action. Given the constraints of rural practice and the need to prioritise those with disease and gaps in service provision for both health services and GPs, there are two challenges: identifying those at-risk and modifying their behaviour.