New Year, New You: Are Irish men becoming body obsessed?

3rd January 2007

Irish men are focusing more on their health than on their wealth, new research out today from Hibernian Life & Pensions has shown.

47% of men claim that they exercise more than three times a week, and the reason given for this was to lose weight and to look better. 77% of men surveyed gave losing weight as one of the reasons they had upped their exercise regime, and 71% said they were conscious of their body image and exercise helped them to look better.

The numbers exercising more than three times a week increases to 54% for males aged 15-24, where body image is all the more important.

Footballers Roy Keane and David Beckham and Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll were cited as the men most men would admire, and aspire to be like in terms of physique and fitness levels.

Yet are we in danger of losing sight of the most important issue. As external body image starts becoming more important are we forgetting about our internal health. Despite high number of men exercising, almost half of those surveyed had never had a full health screening and most had never considered how they would survive financially if they became seriously ill. This is despite the fact that statistics show that men are four times more likely to suffer a serious illness than die before the age of 65**.

Gareth McQuillan, director of marketing and product development at Hibernian Life & Pensions said: “January is typically the month when people start focusing on health and exercise after the excesses of the Christmas period. Our research shows that men are clearly coming under as much pressure as women to look good and as a result are becoming very critical of their own bodies.”

But are most men forgetting about the underlying health issues? With significant increases in prostate and colon cancer it is surprising that almost 50% of men surveyed by Hibernian have never had a full health screening from their GP.

Furthermore the majority of men surveyed (79%) had no form of serious illness insurance to cover them financially if they became ill and could not work for a prolonged period of time.

Gareth McQuillan said: ”It would appear that the current focus on body image and on celebrity sportsmen means that a lot of men are in danger of missing what is really important, their health, and who will support them in the event of an illness. And for men who are self employed this is a very significant problem.”

“If you are unfortunate enough to suffer a serious illness the last thing you want to have to worry about is money. Private health insurance will mean your hospital bills are covered, but a serious illness policy ensures that should the worst happen, you and your family have the extra financial support you need.”

About Hibernian

• Hibernian Group is Ireland’s largest composite insurer, ranked first for general insurance and top three for life and pensions.
• Hibernian Group is a subsidiary of Aviva plc, the world’s fifth-largest insurance group and the UK’s largest insurance services provider (based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2005), and is one of the leading providers of life and pension products to Europe, with substantial positions in other markets around the world. Aviva employs 58,000 staff worldwide.
• Aviva’s principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £41.5 billion and assets under management of £364 billion at 31 December 2006.
• Morley is the UK-based asset management business of Aviva plc. Firms within the Morley group of companies manage £169bn (€247bn) from offices around the world as at 30 April 2007.
• With a strong track record in the property arena, Morley has seven European property funds focusing on a range of sectors and markets and over the last 24 months has acquired over 50 properties in 11 countries. These funds account for over €1.1bn of European assets under management.
• In 2006 Morley Fund Management won two awards at the Central and Eastern European Real Estate Quality awards taking ‘Outstanding Company of the Year’ and ‘Investor of the Year’ for its Central European Property activities.
• The product information above is for press release purposes only; full details are contained in the product literature available from Hibernian.
• The value of property investments is generally a matter of valuer’s opinion rather than fact. In addition, property investments may not always be readily saleable and very occasionally there may be constraints on cashing in units.
• The value of investments abroad may rise and fall due to exchange rate movements.

Media enquiries:

Alan Tyrrell
+ 353 1 898 5452

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