Autopercepción del estado de salud desde quien padece diabetes mellitus, hipertensión arterial e hipercolesterolemia

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the life experience of elderly women with a chronic degenerative disease, specifically diabetes mellitus, hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia, and who live in urban poverty contexts. The methodology was a qualitative and phenomenological analysis focused on eight women ranging in age between 60 and 75 years, who suffered from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia for over five years, and who attend, on a monthly basis, a public health care clinic in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Nuevo León, that is, in the Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez and Monte Kristal colonies (both colonies declared with urban poverty by SEDESOL). In-depth interviews were conducted from August 2011 to June 2014 and the categories for their analysis were their perception of health and illness, attention and care, chronic degenerative disease and poverty, health history, and health care habits (diet, exercise and rest). Main results indicate a relationship between health and a physical condition, a relationship between the disease with an emotional state; and poverty as a control limiting factor resulting from these women‘s lack of access to a personalized treatment. In conclusion, for the women interviewed income limitations, education level, marital status, and place of birth are important factors in the development of their own disease because such conditions and/or circumstances coupled with an unbalanced diet and lack of physical activity complicated their health state in old age.