Four in five suicides are men, Movember report shows

Eva Osborne

Men account for four in every five suicides, according to Movember’s Real Face of Men’s Health report.

The report, produced in partnership with the Men’s Health Forum and National Centre for Men’s Health, is supported by Irish Grammy winner Cian Ducrot and sporting legend Barry McGuigan.

The new findings show mental health remains a critical concern, with over 97 per cent of GPs surveyed seeing male patients with suicidal behaviour in the past year.

On average, doctors saw 15 male patients per year with suicidal thoughts, with the most cases being in the 18-34 and 35-54 age groups.

Speaking on Newstalk, director of policy at Movember, Cliona Fitzpatrick, said mental health is a massive issue.

"The findings from this report, we see that men are 1.7 times more likely to die from, we call them 'external causes', than women," she said.

"And they include things like accidents, they include things like accidental poisoning, but also suicide.

"So you're talking about four in five deaths by suicide are actually male."

The report also showed that two in five men die prematurely before the age of 75, and the vast majority of these deaths are preventable.

Men are 40 per cent more likely than women to die too young, across the five leading causes, according to the report.

Fitzpatrick said the report highlights the ripple effect of men's ill-health.

"Two in five men die prematurely, that's deaths less than 75, in Ireland, and that's just the average," she said.

"So, when you're looking at socio-economic status, men in deprived areas in Ireland they are 1.5 times more likely to die prematurely than men in the least deprived areas.

"What's really staggering there is we had a look at the trends over time and that gap isn't closing or narrowing, it's actually staying steady or worsening in some cases."