The research team, led by David Abbott and Dr Marcus Jepson from the University’s School for Policy Studies, has been awarded the NIHR School for Social Care Research grant to explore the perception of masculinity and male gender for men living with long-term health conditions.

Although many men with long-term health conditions are living longer, healthier lives due in large part to advances in medical technology, it is possible that some men living with life-threatening conditions are not routinely regarded as ‘real men’ because of their increasing reliance on physical support and deterioration in their bodies.

The researchers will focus on a group of men who live with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) for whom good quality social care is important.

David Abbott, the study’s lead researcher from the University’s Norah Fry Research Centre in the School for Policy Studies, said: “We are interested in how issues of male gender are addressed in planning and delivering social care, or not.  We aim to talk to men with DMD to find out more about their experiences of being a man with a long-term condition and about whether the support they receive takes any account of their gender.”

A short film, which discusses the key findings and the main ways in which social care services and staff could better meet the needs of men with long-term conditions, will be produced at the end of the study in April 2013.

The research is a partnership between David Abbott and Dr Marcus Jepson at the Norah Fry Research Centre in the University’s School for Policy Studies, Dr Jon Hastie, a researcher, activist and filmmaker who lives with DMD, and the Duchenne Family Support Group, a charity run by and for those affected by DMD.

Further information about the study is available from d.abbott@bristol.ac.uk