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FATHERS & SONS:
Breaking the Cycle of Silence

Cleveland Clinic Encourages Dads and Sons to MENtion It!

It is easy for dads and sons to talk about sports, work or the weather – but when it comes to health issues opening up may not be so easy. For many men – health issues are kept close to the vest. But when it comes to your health, knowing your family history can make a huge difference in your quality of life. Don’t shortchange your family’s future health by avoiding a conversation with your dad or son.

Last year, Cleveland Clinic created the MENtion It campaign to find out what men really talk to each other about. As you can imagine, health is not a popular topic of conversation between men. In fact, men are 5 times more likely to talk about current events (36%) than their health (7%) in casual conversation with their male friends. This year’s MENtion It campaign aims to get men – specifically dads and sons – to put sports talk on hold and instead open up to each other about what matters…their health.

When Cleveland Clinic surveyed 567 U.S. males over the age of 18, who are currently fathers or father figures to a boy, and who had a father and/or father figure growing up, about two-thirds (62%) reported wishing that their own father (figure) had talked to them more about health topics. In fact, about half (47%) of fathers with sons* said that they didn’t know about their family health history until they started to go to the doctor as an adult.

And, while today’s fathers with sons* are or have been talking with their own dads about some health-related topics, there seems to be a conversation gap when it comes to diet, annual health exams, sex and urological health. Only around two-thirds said their father discusses diet (38%) and getting annual health exams (35%) with them, and even fewer discuss sex (28%) and urological health (23%).

The survey findings also illustrated how important it is to be aware of the health issues that run in the family since only about one-in-ten (12%) of fathers with sons* surveyed indicated that they consult their dad regarding family health history.

When Cleveland Clinic broke the results down by ethnicity, they found the following:
When it comes to their own family, roughly one-third (31%) of African American fathers with sons*said they don’t speak with their families about their health issues or concerns because they don’t want to worry other people.
About half (50%) of African American fathers with sons* whose family doesn’t openly talk about health issues and concerns want to break the pattern with their families.
About two-thirds (62%) of Hispanic fathers with sons* said that their family hid family health issues from them as a kid but talked to them more about it as an adult.
About one-third (31%) Hispanic fathers say they want to talk to their son about health topics but struggle to find the right words.

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