Type II diabetes is increasingly becoming a problem in Latin American countries such as Peru. People living with diabetes must incorporate several behavioral changes in their everyday lives, which are done outside the purview of medical professionals. Support from friends and family members is essential to the successful management of any chronic condition. Our study discusses the role of family involvement in supporting the management of diabetes among Peruvian men and examines how masculine norms play a role in the way such support is received and perceived, and their influence in motivation to adhere to treatment recommendations. In-depth interviews with 20 men from a low socioeconomic status, aged 27 to 68 with a diagnosis of Type II diabetes were conducted. Our analysis suggests the importance of the close, complex, and integrated experience that connects family members and patients with a chronic condition. Participant accounts demonstrate they receive multiple forms of support from a diverse range of social relationships. The overwhelming majority of the people giving the support were female and were especially significant in supporting management practices. The participants’ accounts were able to demonstrate how living with a chronic condition, such as diabetes, affects the whole family–physically, mentally, and emotionally–and they experience the disease as one unit. Our study demonstrates the need for a family health experience approach that considers masculine gender norms around health and provides relevant insights to inform family-based treatments and therapies to allow for more and better targeted health care for men.

Ferrazza, Isabella, and M. Amalia Pesantes. Men With Type II Diabetes in Peru: The Role of Masculine Gender Norms in the Perception of Family Support. American Journal of Men's Health 18, no. 2 (2024). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15579883241239552

© The Author(s) 2024
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Open Access publication of this article was made possible with grant support from Waidner-Spahr Library distributed through the Dickinson College Research & Development Committee.

Maria Amalia Pesantes is a professor of Anthropology at Dickinson College.
Isabella Ferrazza, Dickinson College class of 2024.

This published version is made available on Dickinson Scholar with the permission of the publisher. For more information on the published version, visit SAGE's Website. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15579883241239552

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