Evaluation of household self-care pratice in leprosy

• Autor(a) principal: Galan, Noêmi Garcia de Almeida Galan
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Beluci, Marli Luiz, Marciano, Lucia Helena Soares Camargo, Prado, Renata Bilion Ruiz, Oliveira, Nagila Garcia Galan de, Bonini, Ariane Gasparotto, Arakaki, Fabio Ribeiro, Guimarães, Gisele da Silva
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Hansenologia Internationalis (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br/hansenologia/article/view/36181
• topic: Hanseníase; Autocuidado; Educação em Saúde; Leprosy; Self Care; Health Education

This study aimed at determining whether individuals affected by leprosy properly performed self-care practice and its possible interfering factors. It is a documental, observational and descriptive study of household survey. The sample was composed of eleven patients evaluated during one year in a municipality with 120.000 inhabitants in SP state. Clinical data and prescription care records were obtained from the medical files. The interview and observation of self-care practices were held at home. The participants were asked to identify the problems resulting from the disease, to demonstrate which, how and when they performed the necessary self-care, which was classified as: held properly, held partially or not performed. The study was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research (Nº 06/2007). Among the five individuals who presented grade 2 disability, three partially performed and two did not perform self-care. They demonstrated difficulties in accepting the physical involvement and in incorporating the daily practices for multiple causes factors, so did those individuals with grade 1disability. The need of maintaining labor activities, with full-time exposure to physical trauma, can lead to concealment of the disease, either for themselves or for the society. It may also hinder self-care actions, either by lack of time or for not accepting the disease. The paternalistic, fragmenting and mechanical model of health care leads to a tendency of patients to rely on institutional services, deconstructing the autonomy and individual responsibility for their general health status, discouraging self-care actions at home.