While evaluating a food education program designed for low-income families, Barbara Lohse heard genuine concern and interest from men. “What are a few of the best foods to buy on a budget?” some asked. Similarly, while passing out educational materials at farmers markets, she heard other questions from men. “What is a healthy weight for my daughter?” the men wondered. “How much should my son really be eating?” It was clear to her, these men were active in feeding their families, and they wanted to learn more.
Dr. Lohse, Research Professor of Nutritional Sciences, says families in the United States—in particular low-income families—have become more egalitarian, with men and women sharing food purchasing and preparation responsibilities. Based on data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), most men and women reported sharing food management tasks. Of the 462 men surveyed, a majority said they were responsible for feeding their child more than half the time.
“The men are planning meals, cooking, and taking care of the children. They are heavy influencers of food consumption in families,” Dr. Lohse said. “Just through off-hand comments, we learned that men were interested in learning more about their kids’ nutrition. It made sense to see if the education they were receiving about nutrition best fit their needs.”
While there is a long history of research on nutrition education designed for women, few studies have addressed men’s needs in this regard. In particular, studies of nutrition education for low-income males are almost non-existent. “This is partly due to the misconception that women almost exclusively run the kitchen, the misguided belief that men are not interested in family’s diet, and the reputation that low-income males are difficult to reach,” Dr. Lohse noted.
Because men have been largely an afterthought in nutrition education programming, current educational materials are not designed with them in mind, and most leave out men all together. The example scenarios and stories used in the programming often revolve around raising a good family and being a successful mother. As a result, men have difficulty relating to what is being taught and not surprisingly are not effective in changing knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors related to family nutrition.
To address the shortcomings of nutrition education for men, Dr. Lohse’s recent research, published in the Journal of Community Health, focused on two goals: 1) understanding what factors drive the family food and nutrition decisions made by low-income men and 2) understanding what curricula men would find most useful.
“It’s not a matter of reinventing the wheel when it comes to these educational programs,” she said. “My hope is to take the materials that are targeted toward women and revise them to benefit a greater audience.”
Through phone interviews, Dr. Lohse and her research team learned about men’s common habits when buying food, as well as barriers and challenges they experienced while making meal and snack decisions for their families. The participants were recruited from a list of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users. Formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, SNAP promotes healthy eating by providing low-income households with the means to buy healthy food at supermarkets. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services provided the list of participants. SNAP-Ed is the educational arm of the SNAP program. Pennsylvania has the third largest SNAP-Ed program in the country.
The men who participated in the study were not necessarily fathers, but identified as having a major influence on at least one child’s diet. They included stepfathers, fathers with joint custody, boyfriends who cared for their partner’s child, and others.
“We had a broad spectrum of men from all over the state between the ages of 18 and 59. Some were totally responsible for their children, others partially,” Dr. Lohse said. “There were all kinds of family structures.”
Twenty-eight percent of the men interviewed lived in households that relied on food pantries and 60 percent had received SNAP within the past year. More than half of the men said they worry about money when making food decisions. Dr. Lohse asked about other factors affecting healthy food purchases. Forty percent of the respondents, the highest in this category, said taste had the greatest influence on their dietary decision-making. Other factors included cost and nutritional value. No participant listed convenience as a barrier to eating healthy.
After identifying the issues men deal with when making food decisions, Dr. Lohse wanted to learn what specific nutrition programming men could connect with. The research team conducted more in-depth interviews with 25 men who participated in the About Eating program, an evidence-based, educational web program on healthy eating. The program focuses on a range of healthy activities, from physical fitness to food planning. About Eating is administered by the Nutrition Education Engineering and Design (NEEDS) Center, an initiative Dr. Lohse leads.
The interviews with men resulted in three major suggestions to enhance nutrition education programming. Specifically, they wanted more images that feature male-focused activities like sports, fishing, or weightlifting. The men wanted more guidance and feedback from online quizzes to get an understanding of how they are progressing.
“Men like to see if they did well or if they need help in certain areas,” Dr. Lohse said. “They like to know exactly how they scored.”
The men also wanted more facts and figures included in the programming. Many felt the content was heavy on emotion and light on real-life statistics. “For women, it’s all about how you feel and what your family will like. Men like details: How many people die from heart disease? What is a healthy weight? They want cold-hard facts,” stressed Dr. Lohse.
These results provide compelling evidence to revisit family nutrition programs and revise them to address the needs of men. Dr. Lohse’s future research related to About Eating includes creating an app for digital tablets, as well as working with Rhonda Belue, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration, to offer About Eating in Spanish. Encouraged by her research findings to date, Dr. Lohse expects that in the future nutrition program developers, health professionals and researchers will increasingly cater to the needs of men when designing or revising nutritional interventions.