Talk to Me, Not at Me: An Ethnographic Study on Health-Related Help-Seeking Behavior Among Socially Marginalized Danish Men

Abstract

Research shows that men tend to have delayed health-related help-seeking behavior. In this ethnographic study, we explored influential factors related to health-related help-seeking behavior among socially marginalized men who seem not to benefit from existing municipal health care services in a large Danish municipality. The study included 200 hours of participant observations and 25 ethnographic interviews with men between 45 and 65 years of age in their own homes and in public parks among their peers. In this study, we found that the men had several complex and interacting social- and health-related conditions, which seemed to affect their health-related help-seeking behavior. We conclude that collaborative initiatives between the outreach team who occasionally visits bench sites in the public parks and the municipal health care services in the local areas could lay the groundwork for encouraging men’s health-related help-seeking behavior and aid men in supporting each other.