Adherence of older people with diabetes to self-care activities: a study on gender differences

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is one of the main diseases affecting the elderly population, and the evaluation of adherence to the elderly self-care practices in diabetes is essential to reduce the occurrence of events considered preventable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the self-care activities for elderly people with diabetes mellitus and check the gender differences in adherence to these activities. Methods:Descriptive study conducted with 50 elderlies of both genders, assisted by a Family Health Unit in a city of Paraíba within November 2013 to January 2014. The data collection used the Diabetes Questionnaire of Self-Care Activities, adapted and validated for the Brazilian context from the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Questionnaire. Results:The elderly population studied showed satisfactory adherence to self-care activities proposed by the instrument. There were no statistically significant differences between men and women in mean adherence to the activities of self-care with diabetes. Older women had higher scores for the dimensions "general and specific food" and

Resilience and Self-Care in People With Diabetes Mellitus

“…The sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants are similar to other studies with people with DM, which also highlight the predominance of females, the elderly, married and retirees or pensioners, with low education levels. 3,10,[18][19] The high prevalence of hypertension was identified in the participants, corroborating with other studies. 10,19 In the studied sample, only 21% reported complications related to DM, characterizing a small portion of people in the studied sample, different from what was pointed out in another study.…”