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 performed with 72 participants, allocated into Intervention Group (IG) and Control Group (CG).The IG participated in six circles to discuss and unveil the generative themes: diet, medication, diabetes complications and foot care; the CG participated only in routine consultations. The change provided by the circles after three months of intervention was evaluated through the Diabetes Self-Care Activity Questionnaire, fasting capillary glycemia, systolic and diastolic arterial pressure, body mass index and abdominal circumference. The IG showed a statistically significant increase in self-care adherence to healthy diet, physical exercise, glycemic monitoring and examination and drying of the feet and reduced fasting capillary glycemia (211.6 ± 102.5 to 181.9 ± 66.3 mg/dL), systolic arterial pressure 125(120-140) to 120(117.5-130 mmHg) and abdominal circumference (96.3 ± 9.5 to 95.5 ± 9.1 cm), while in the CG there were no changes during the study. The culture circles, as an educational approach, were able to improve the self-care adherence practices of patients with diabetes and provide improvement in some cardiovascular risk parameters.