==== Front
Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1857
igaa057.1857
Abstracts
Session 5335 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Health-Related Support and Control on Poor Diet in Mixed-Weight, Older Gay Married Couples
Novak Joshua 1 Wilson Stephanie 2 Peak Terry 3 Gast Julie 3 Miyairi-Steel Maya 3 1 
Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, United States
2 
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, United States
3 
Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”563 563
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
The health support and control literature in same sex couples suggests partners take turns (known as health behavior work). However, research has not accounted for mixed-weight (lighter partner (LP) and heavier partner (HP)) status in these relationships nor investigated domain-specific health behavior work (i.e., dietary habits) on outcomes. We examined an actor-partner interdependence mediation model of 224 mixed-weight, older gay married couples (mean age: 52) and controlled for education, relationship satisfaction and length, frequency of eating meals together, and income. Nutrition-specific eating encouragement and discouragement was not associated with poor dietary behaviors for either partner. More frequent couples’ reports of disagreements about nutrition was associated poorer diet for both the HP and LP (through their own higher depressive symptoms). Interestingly, the higher LP’s health support was associated with better LP’s diet (through lower depressive symptoms), and higher HP’s health control was associated with poorer LP’s diet (through lower depressive symptoms).