Volume 1, Issue 4, 2026
(Ongoing)
Review Article
International Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 1(4), 2026, jebm016, https://doi.org/10.63946/jebm/19495
ABSTRACT:
Background: Adult men experience a disproportionate burden of mental health morbidity yet consistently demonstrate lower rates of help-seeking compared with women. Barriers such as stigma, limited mental health literacy, and masculine norms often prevent early recognition of distress and engagement with support, contributing to prolonged difficulties and poorer outcomes. Behavioural health education interventions have been proposed as a means to address these upstream barriers.
Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the effectiveness of behavioural health education interventions in improving mental health help-seeking among adult men.
Methods: Following PRISMA 2020, we searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Dimensions AI for studies published from 2015 to 2025 for intervention studies with adult men aged ≥18 years. Ten studies were included and synthesised narratively. Risk of bias was assessed using RoB 2 and ROBINS-I. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted on three RCTs reporting help-seeking intentions using the Generic Inverse Variance method, with effects expressed as Standardised Mean Differences (SMD) and 95% CIs.
Findings: Narratively, interventions most consistently improved mental health awareness, stigma reduction, emotional openness, and help-seeking intentions. Evidence of direct behavioural change was limited. The pooled meta-analysis showed no statistically significant effect on help-seeking intentions (SMD = 0.02, 95% CI −0.19 to 0.24; p = 0.85; I² = 79%). Sensitivity analysis using a fixed-effect model yielded a small significant effect (SMD = 0.08, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.17).
Conclusion: Behavioural health education interventions may improve psychological factors associated with help-seeking among adult men, particularly awareness, stigma-related outcomes, and readiness to seek support. However, the meta-analysis found no statistically significant pooled effect on help-seeking intentions, with substantial heterogeneity indicating variation according to intervention type, population characteristics, and delivery context.
Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the effectiveness of behavioural health education interventions in improving mental health help-seeking among adult men.
Methods: Following PRISMA 2020, we searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Dimensions AI for studies published from 2015 to 2025 for intervention studies with adult men aged ≥18 years. Ten studies were included and synthesised narratively. Risk of bias was assessed using RoB 2 and ROBINS-I. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted on three RCTs reporting help-seeking intentions using the Generic Inverse Variance method, with effects expressed as Standardised Mean Differences (SMD) and 95% CIs.
Findings: Narratively, interventions most consistently improved mental health awareness, stigma reduction, emotional openness, and help-seeking intentions. Evidence of direct behavioural change was limited. The pooled meta-analysis showed no statistically significant effect on help-seeking intentions (SMD = 0.02, 95% CI −0.19 to 0.24; p = 0.85; I² = 79%). Sensitivity analysis using a fixed-effect model yielded a small significant effect (SMD = 0.08, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.17).
Conclusion: Behavioural health education interventions may improve psychological factors associated with help-seeking among adult men, particularly awareness, stigma-related outcomes, and readiness to seek support. However, the meta-analysis found no statistically significant pooled effect on help-seeking intentions, with substantial heterogeneity indicating variation according to intervention type, population characteristics, and delivery context.
