“It really relies on the wife to get men to eat healthy”: African American men's and women's perceptions of how wives influence men's eating behavior and dietary health

Women play a critical role in men’s dietary health, but the nature and mechanisms of wives’ influence on men’s eating behavior are not well understood.  This study compares how middle-aged and older African American men and important women in their lives describe wives’ influence on men’s eating behaviors. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze data from exploratory focus groups conducted in southeast Michigan: nine groups with 83 African American men and eight groups with 77 African American women. Men and women described traditional, gendered food roles at home and reported that wives played a dominant role in household food decision making. Men felt they had little influence over what they ate at home, yet wives explained that they endeavored to identify foods men would eat and to provide healthier foods out of concern for their husbands’ health. Couples rarely engaged in open dialogue about men’s eating behaviors, though both men and women described men’s dietary health as a shared responsibility. Changes toward healthier food offerings in the home resulted from a combination of women’s concerns about men’s health and men prioritization of preserving the spousal division of roles and maintaining marital harmony over asserting their preferences. Men and women both indicated that men exercised more freedom to choose preferred, usually unhealthy, foods outside the home. This research highlights the importance of gendered social norms and the marital relationship in understanding the eating behaviors and dietary health of middle-aged African American men.