Alimentación salud y cultura - SANHISO C. International health and ...

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The diabetes’ care
This work is based on the discoveries of the research I have been
developing in a diabetics association in São Paulo, Brazil. The field
work includes the observation of the weekly activities that congregate
the diabetic members of the association. The activities are organized
in groups including from 12 to 18 people. These groups take
place in the association’s headquarters. The objective of the groups’
activities is related to the education for how to deal with diabetes.
the familiarization with the biomedical ideas and concepts about the
physiologic processes related to the illness, and the introduction in a
wide universe of knowledge concerning habits and practices of care
of itself - ranging from the techniques for the glycemic measurement
and insulin application, to the concepts of healthy eating.
Besides the activities of more educational character, the association
has two psychotherapy groups, which also meet weekly. The research
includes not only the observation of those activities, but also
semi-structured interviews with 12 selected members.
The members that frequent the association’s activities are aged
between 53 and 90. The great majority is composed by women – 8
out of 12 people interviewed are female. Although some members
present some characteristics that define them as being part of middle
class – having a bachelor’s degree, a qualified profession or being a
matter of small shop owners, as the case of three interviewed men
and of one woman –, the vast majority is fundamentally composed by
retired working class people. Among the women, 50% live alone – in
this case they are widows –, two of them live with their husbands,
and the family unit still shelters some single son; one of the other
two women is divorced and lives with two single children, the other
woman lives with the daughter’s family. Usually the male presence in
the groups organized by the association never exceeds 25%. Among
the four interviewed men, two of them still maintain the family unit
constituted by wife and children; the third man lives with the wife,
having his children already married; and the fourth man is single and
lives alone.
In spite of the advice and incentive that are produced in the activities
in which the diabetics participate, it is quite variable the extent
to which they really engage in the change of the eating habits;