Amandaba in the Caeté: culture circles as an educational practice in the self-care of patients with diabetes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the pedagogical strategy of Paulo Freire's culture circles in adherence to self-care in patients with Diabetes Mellitus. A randomized clinical test was conducted with 72 participants, allocated to Intervention Group (GI) and Control Group (CG). The GI participated in six circles to problematize and unveil the generating themes: feeding, medication, diabetes complications and foot care. GC participated only in routine consultations. The change provided by the circles after 3 months of intervention was evaluated through the Diabetes self-care activities questionnaire fasting capillary glycemia, systolic and diastolic arterial pressure, corporal mass index and abdominal circumference. The GI presented a statistically significant growth in adherence to self-care for healthy feeding, physical exercise, glycemic monitoring and examination, and dryness of the feet and reduction of fasting capillary glycemia (211.6 ± 102.5 for 181.9 ± 66.3 mg / dL), systolic arterial pressure (125 (120-140) for 120 (117.5-130 mmHg) and abdominal circumference (96.3 ± 9.5 for 95.5 ± 9.1 cm), while in the GC was not modified during the study. The culture circles, as an educational approach, were able to improve adherence practices to self-care of patients with diabetes and to improve some parameters of cardiovascular risk.