Abstract

PEREZ MARTINEZ, Víctor T.. Elderly adaptive response related to diabetes mellitus and behavior in two health areas. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2009, vol.25, n.3. ISSN 0864-2125.

INTRODUCTION: in diabetic patient life of quality is related to metabolic control, which in turn, depends of many psychosocial and behavioral factors. Study of adaptive response to this disease will allow us to identify risk behaviors interfering with proper fulfillment of treatment and the metabolic control. AIM: to determine existence of adaptive response patterns to diabetes mellitus in cohort of elderlies from "Ana Betancourt" and "Rampa" University polyclinics. METHODS: a cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out to select a cohort of 260 diabetic patients aged between 60 and 75 from the above mentioned areas. RESULTS: there was predominance of female sex, primary level of education, as well as retired persons and housewives. Mean course time of disease was lower than 10 years. In both health areas, it was possible to demonstrate existence of a common pattern of adaptive response to diabetes mellitus in more than 90 % of patients, characterized by disease assessment as a severe ailment, trend to improve health behavior, an acceptable working of social support network. CONCLUSIONS: adaptive response to diabetes mellitus was poor in most of study patients showing a similar behavior in diabetic elderlies of both health areas due to the favorable social-cultural features inherent to community of the two places involved in this research.

Keywords : Common pattern; adaptive response; diabetes mellitus.

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