Men surveyed for the study were more likely than women to say that they
were exercising regularly and that they had quit smoking for more than
six months, say Erin L. O’Hea, Ph.D., of the Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School and colleagues. Their findings appear in the American
Journal of Health Behavior.
Women, on the other hand, were more likely to say that they had no intentions
of quitting smoking or and were only beginning to contemplate exercising
regularly.
The researchers found no significant differences in men and women’s
readiness to decrease the amount of fat that they ate.
O’Hea and colleagues say their findings provide a much-needed glimpse
of health behavior change within a low-income minority population, since
much of the previous research on behavior change has studied middle-
or upper-income predominantly white populations. Earlier studies of white
populations, for instance, showed that women were further along than
men
in adopting lower-fat diets.
“These findings have practical implications for health care providers,
which we hope will be used to assist both men and women with adopting healthier
lifestyles,” O’Hea says.
The researchers found that men were more likely than women to think there
were fewer pros and cons to both smoking and exercising. Men were also
more confident in their abilities to quit smoking and exercise, which
could indicate that “men may be generally more confident about making personal
behavior changes than females are,” O’Hea says.
