(P31-034-23) Perceptions of Individual, Interpersonal, and Community Barriers to Healthy Eating: An Investigation Among Middle-Age Central American Immigrant Men

Objectives: To understand low-income, middle-age, overweight or obese Central American immigrant men’s perceptions of barriers to healthy eating.

Methods: In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with low-income, Central American men (n=25) living in Washington D.C. in fall 2020 and spring 2021. Participants were asked to elicit thoughts related to barriers they encountered around: (a) eating healthy foods in their daily life, and (b) having a home food environment (i.e., family cooking habits, availability of foods) supportive of healthy eating. Additionally, men were asked about obstacles specifically since immigrating to the U.S. Audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and then content analyzed to identify themes using NVivo v12.

Results: Overweight or obese Central American men with a mean age of 52.6±6.9 years who had resided in the U.S. for 23.7±10.2 years described individual, interpersonal, and community level barriers to healthy eating. Individual-level barriers included: (1) liking calorically-dense traditional cultural foods (i.e., pupusas), (2) craving fast foods, (3) living alone and not having cooking self-efficacy, (4) lack of time to cook healthy foods, (5) wanting to eat foods in the U.S. that were scarce in their country of origin (i.e., fast food), (6) perceiving that healthy foods were not appetizing, and (7) finding that healthy foods were more expensive. Interpersonal-level barriers included: (1) partners cooking unhealthy foods or cooking foods they preferred not eating often (i.e., meat) at home, and (2) home availability of caloric-dense foods. Community-level obstacles to healthy eating included: (1) home or work food environments with limited healthy food options, and (2) the ubiquity of unhealthy food options at social gatherings.

Conclusions: Men perceived barriers to eating healthy at the individual, interpersonal, and community-levels of influence. Culture, lack of time to cook healthy foods, food preferences, familial factors and living or working in obesogenic environments were examples of barriers elicited. Interventions to promote healthy eating among Central American men need to include strategies to overcome these barriers to meet the needs of this underrepresented group.

Funding Sources: Sumner Redstone Center Pilot Program Grant