What factors influence the Nutritional Attitudes and Behaviors of Mexican Women with Type 2 Diabetes?

How do Mexican-origin women with type 2 diabetes make decisions about their nutrition? And what factors influence those decisions? In this study qualitative methods were used to interview nine, mostly mono-lingual Spanish-speaking, women of Mexican origin in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California between 2004 and 2005. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used to frame areas in the semi-structured interview guide including aspects of social environment and self-efficacy. It was found that women who had a chance to view healthy meal preparation more often described healthier nutritional habits suggesting that observational learning is an effective strategy for learning healthy eating behaviors. Nevertheless observational learning opportunities were not the most common intervention for these women in their health care experiences. All of the women in the study had been given a “meal planner” by a health care provider, but only the woman with the culturally-relevant planner in Spanish and with pictures used hers. Other factors found to influence women in their nutritional behaviors and attitudes were their husbands/partners and other family members; availability of foods in environment; and resources for accessing information/educational experiences.