MyHealth: Co-Creating Men’s Health and Lifestyle Postcards

The health of all men is a public health issue. Men with intellectual disability (ID) in particular experience more physical health conditions than the general male population. Men with ID have twice as many mental health conditions and a life expectancy more than a decade below the general male population. A refusal to seek health advice may limit male health education, increasing exposure to lifestyle risks. Some health promotional materials exist. However, dated format or inappropriate language; allied to tokenistic accessibility can result in poorly conceived, stigmatized communication methods, thus rendering important health information inaccessible. To address this shortfall of accessible information, the MyHealth project has been developed with ID experts. Consultation involving men with ID has resulted in tactile, health-information postcards. The communication design is ID led but content relevant to all men. Co-creation has shaped the design of user-sensitive, printed health information. Using concise language, care has been taken to avoid exclusive, stigmatizing terminology; improving health education prospects of the system. The tactile printed format is compact, inexpensive and independent of technology, affording ownership over periodical screen-observation. MyHealth has assembled a co-creation research community for men’s health information. This community is currently in one region. The MyHealth ambition is to connect nationwide communities, to co-create user-focused content in a flexible and responsible manner. In addition to the merits of the tactile platform, variations of detail preferred by members of the research community indicate need for a supporting digital health information system. A communication system resolved to benefit the lowest capability user, may benefit the whole spectrum of users. A well-conceived system may achieve the least perceptual difference between needs of those users. This will form the next phase of development; using the co-created tactile communication design to reach the widest male population.