**4. Discussion**

Results from this study offer important insights about how interventions that address healthy eating/diet, physical activity and body image may be tailored to Mexican and Puerto Rican men. Results revealed that over half of the participants (66.5%) preferred the intervention to be in Spanish or Spanish and English. In addition, 88.68% of participants indicated that it was "moderately", "very" or "extremely important" for the intervention leader to be bilingual and 66.01% said it was either "moderately" to "extremely important" for the intervention leader to be Latino. These findings highlight the importance of bilingualism among Mexican and Puerto Rican men. It is particularly important to note that although only two-thirds of participants preferred interventions to be in Spanish or Spanish and English and for the leader to be Latino, almost all participants indicated they would prefer a bilingual leader. Our findings replicate a previous study among Mexican Americans that identified having a bilingual intervention leader/instructor as a key component of the ideal physical activity intervention [31]. This suggests that, in interventions among Puerto Rican or Mexican men, having a bilingual leader is of paramount importance.

A high percentage of respondents indicated that 1.5–2 h meetings twice a week would be feasible. Previous qualitative research has found that some of the most significant barriers to physical activity among Latino men are busy work schedules and fatigue likely due to strenuous jobs [21,23,32]. Tailoring interventions to fit within Latino men's busy schedules can help with recruitment and retention. Our findings suggest that meeting for up to two hours twice a week to engage in physical activity may be an appropriate starting point for community interventions. Although we did not specifically assess preferences for a virtual or telehealth intervention, future interventions may wish to also consider this option, while meeting twice weekly.

In addition to time, location of intervention is critical. In this study, Puerto Rican and Mexican participants reported a preference for different Chicago neighborhoods. Understandably, the results indicated that intervention location preferences follow the general ethnic composition of the same neighborhoods. That is, Puerto Ricans preferred interventions to be held in Puerto Rican neighborhoods and Mexicans in Mexican neighborhoods. Participants may feel more comfortable participating in interventions held in their communities. Alternatively, it is possible that participants chose a location based on the distance between the location and where they live, work, or how close that site is located to other places they visit, regardless of the ethnic composition of the community. Distance travelled to an intervention would be crucial in maintaining participant intervention adherence to the intervention program. Moreover, intervention location may have implications for long-term sustainability as participants may continue engaging in physical activity at the location of the intervention. Indeed, lack of access to safe spaces for exercise has been identified as a barrier to physical activity among Latinos [21,31].

In terms of the type of exercise program, the Puerto Rican participants with overweight/obesity indicated a significantly greater interest in exercise programs with Latin or salsa movements and music. This finding underscores the often-overlooked diversity within the Latinx community. In this study, Puerto Ricans showed a greater preference towards exercise programs with salsa movements and music than Mexicans. Usually, salsa music is more associated with Puerto Ricans or Puerto Rican music [58]. However, musical preferences among Latinxs vary; thus, it may be important for aerobics-based physical activity interventions to include culturally appropriate music for the target Latinx subgroup [11]. It should be noted, however, that the present study focused on the preferences of Latino men regarding an exercise program which included aerobics. While interventions that have included aerobics or dancing have been successful [59,60], other types of activities should be considered. Walking, for example, seems to be the preferred type of physical activity among individuals of Mexican ancestry [31,61].

Slightly more than half of all participants reported that they would be interested in attending an intervention that included *dichos* or *cuentos*. These findings suggest that *dichos* and *cuentos* may still be an important tool to include in interventions, albeit not as significant as other aspects (e.g., language of leader). Alternatively, the lower-than-expected interest in *dichos* and *cuentos* may be due to the age distribution and/or generational status of the participants. We will explore these factors in future analyses. Despite the widespread use of *dichos* and *cuentos* among Latinxs, there is a dearth of studies examining their role on physical activity and diet interventions in this group. Miranda et al. [38] suggest that *dichos* may serve as mantras of motivation for adopting healthy behaviors; however, they cautioned that *dichos* may not result in pragmatic changes for all. *Cuentos* may serve a similar role. Additional research, however, is warranted to examine the role and effectiveness of both *dichos* and *cuentos* in lifestyle and body image interventions.

This study has a number of limitations. First, it must be kept in mind that the current study is exploratory, and, therefore, interpretation of the results should be made cautiously. Second, the participants of this study were recruited from neighborhoods in Chicago, IL, thus the representativeness of the sample is limited. Third, the acculturation level, ethnic identity, and other background characteristics, such as place of residence, nativity, years in the U.S., and marital status, were not examined in relation to these findings or controlled statistically. This is an important area of future investigation and future studies will seek to further explore these variables as it relates to intervention preferences of Latino men. Fourth, questions that were reported in this paper were posed in a closed-ended fashion. Our future work will explore the physical activity responses of Latino men using an open-ended format, which will add to a deeper understanding of the preferences of Latino men. Finally, although it is a strength that this study included data on Mexicans and Puerto Ricans—two of the largest Latinx groups in the U.S.—there is a tremendous amount of diversity within and between these and other Latinx groups (e.g., acculturation) that should also be kept in mind when developing interventions for Latino men.

These limitations notwithstanding, a number of strengths must be highlighted. First, this study focused exclusively on Mexican and Puerto Rican men, a greatly understudied group, with a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. Second, a rigorous communitybased protocol for recruitment and data collection resulted in invaluable information on design and delivery strategies for gender- and culture-sensitive interventions. Finally, together with results from our prior studies, the current study adds important insights that may help with designing healthy eating/diet, physical activity, body image, and overall overweight and obesity interventions for Mexican and Puerto Rican men.

Despite the need to involve Latino men in diet and physical activity interventions, more is needed to increase recruitment, adherence, and engagement in this group. One size fits all interventions have not been successful, in part, because Latino men have their own gender- and ethnicity-related set of preferences, barriers, and motivators in regard to diet and physical activity. First, in terms of language preference, future interventions should consider including bilingual intervention leaders and conducting the intervention itself in both languages (Spanish and English). Second, in terms of the structure, the Mexican and Puerto Rican men in this study preferred the intervention to be held twice per week for one and a half to two hours. This may provide a starting point for developing healthy eating, physical activity, and body image interventions. This study also illustrated the importance of selecting intervention locations, exercise programs (aerobics with Latin or salsa movements and music), and cultural elements (use of *dichos* and *cuentos*) that matched the preferences of men in this study. Such considerations should be taken into account when designing and delivering a healthy eating, physical activity, and body image intervention among Mexican and Puerto Rican men. In conclusion, our study provides critical information about the intervention preferences of Mexican and Puerto Rican men that may be used to guide the design and development of Latinx-centered obesity interventions for men in an effort to reduce risk of cardiometabolic diseases.
