Social representations of patients with arterial hypertension about the disease: the discourse of the collective subject

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Geovana Brandão Santana
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Paz, Elisabete Pimenta Araújo, Silva, Girlene Alves da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Reme (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/reme/article/view/50264
• topic: Hypertension; Nursing Care; Basic Health Unit; Hipertensión; Cuidados de Enfermería; Unidad Básica de Salud; Hipertensão; Cuidados de Enfermagem; Unidade Básica de Saúde

This article has the goal to analyze the representations of patients with arterial hypertension who are users of health basic services about this disease and the way they take care of themselves. We used the semi-structured interview for these patients and data were organized using the collective subject discourse technique and the theory of social representations was used to interpret the data. The results revealed users' insufficient knowledge about arterial hypertension and ways of control and treatment of this disease. They recognize hypertension as a serious illness that may cause great consequences when it is not treated. The structural difficulties of the services contribute to discourage the user from participating in actions to promote health. These results indicate the need for intensification of care activities that sensitize the patients in order to have the conscious control of hypertension.