McCoy, Carrie

Background: African American men are disproportionately affected by hypertension compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Self-management practices such as following a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can lead to improved hypertension control. However, healthy options may be inaccessible for some African American men, Gardening may provide easy access to fruits and vegetables. Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study exploring African American men’s experiences with hypertension from Tennessee who regularly engaged in personal or community gardening and their gardening benefits (diet, physical activity, stress management), preferred diets and food selection. Participants completed semi-structured interviews and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet questionnaire which was compared to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate. Results: Participants (N=9, mean age 65 [SD 5.4] years) reported that gardening improved their regular physical activity, stress management, and satisfaction with providing for others. Several themes emerged including that participants preferred to manage their hypertension through diet modification by alternating traditional diets (high fat/sodium) with heart-healthy (low fat/sodium) meals and that they recognized the continuous nature of healthy food selection. Diet questionnaire responses revealed mean daily fruit (2.9 [SD 1.7]) and vegetable (2.8 [SD 1.1]) servings were below DASH diet recommendations but above MyPlate guidelines. Further, mean daily meat/protein (3.7[SD 1.1]) and fat/oil intake (6.4 [SD 7.2]) servings exceeded both recommendations. Conclusion: Our study suggests that personal and community gardening may provide a means for African American men to improve hypertension self-management practices through physical activity, stress relief, and healthy food access. Further studies of gardening interventions on blood pressure control among this group are warranted.