2022 Volume 35 Issue 1 Pages 91-99
It is known that middle-aged men, compared to women, are more reluctant to participate in public health promotion programs to increase exercise, change their diet, control alcohol consumption, or cease smoking. Hence, we developed material for a health promotion program for supporting middle-aged couples by encouraging men to participate and change their behavior by collaborating with their partners. We named the program, “Small Change Health Promotion for Couples.” We conducted focus group interviews (FGIs) with representatives of the target audience before recruiting participants for the program as formative reseach. Seven couples (5 men and 7 women: mean age 48.5 years) current health behaviors participated in the FGIs held separately for men and women, in which we focused on the following issues: (1) current health behaviors, (2) conversation topics about health with each other, (3) small behavior changes that each partner can undertake, (4) small behavior changes that couples can undertake together, (5) tangible methods of promoting each other’s health, and (6) health intervention strategies to accommodate men (in the female group only). The FGIs showed clear gender differences in health promotion attitudes, health-related conversation topics, and psychosocial factors influencing behaviors, including barriers and facilitators. Based on this information, we developed supporting material for a couple’s program, which we plan to introduce in the future.
