Masculinity, race/color and health

Studies indicate that in Brazil blacks have less formal education, lower salaries, reside in peripheral neighborhoods in large urban centers and are excluded from various social rights. This study is based on the hypothesis that health, sickness, and death are socially constructed processes demarcated by the social space occupied in society by men and women, blacks and whites. This article analyses the mortality profile of black and white men as registered in the death certificates emitted by the State of São Paulo in the year 1999. Rates of mortality were analyzed according to basic causes, according to the groups of ICD-10 [The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems], and to the race/color: black and white. This study indicates that when rates of mortality of black and white men are compared, mental illnesses (alcoholism and drug addiction); infectious and parasitic diseases (tuberculoses and HIV/Aids) as well as external causes (homicides) are more frequent causes of death among black men.

Race; Mortality; Inequity; Masculinity and gender