Identification of factors affecting dietary behaviors of South Asian men

INTRODUCTION: Male participation in dietary studies has generally been less compared to females. Furthermore, there exists a need for more studies focusing on men’s health and nutrition especially in minority populations. South Asians, in particular, have a genetic predisposition to diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. This subset of a larger study explained the relationship between various factors associated with dietary behaviors in South Asian men.

METHODS: A sample size of 58 males completed the culturally modified self-reported survey on demographics and nutritional behavior questions adapted from Health Promotion Lifestyle II Survey. Demographic variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Dietary behavior was assessed by 9 items scored from never (1) to always (4) with a greater score suggesting better dietary behavior. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between dietary behaviors and other factors in the study such as family history of diseases, stress levels, tobacco use, weight perception in comparison to peers and frequency of traditional foods.

RESULTS: Mean Age and Body Mass Index of the participants was ~24. Mean dietary score of participants was 20.4 out of 36 total.42.9% indicated having a family history of diseases. Only 40% of the males did not consider themselves to be underweight or overweight. This ties in with the mean Body Mass Index of 23.1 kg/m² for participants which is considered overweight for South Asians according to the recommendations of World Health Organization. Out of all the factors, weight perception and frequency of traditional foods significantly predicted better dietary behaviors suggesting that males who had greater intake of traditional foods and those who perceived their weight to be higher as compared to their peers had better dietary behaviors.

DISCUSSION: Results from this study reinforce the need to develop culturally appropriate male-specific interventions for improvement in dietary behaviors of males.