EVALUATION OF EDUCATION IN HEALTH GROUPS FOR PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC DISEASES

The study aimed to characterize health education groups conducted for hypertension and diabetes patients in Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil. This is a quantitative study conducted among 121 professionals with ties to the Family Health Strategy. The researchers used a form containing descriptive and evaluation variables, like the holding of groups with the community, issues discussed, professionals participating, suggestions, and issues. The results showed that 70 percent of the units offer health education groups; however, such groups are focused on curative themes. Professionals who were involved most were community health workers and nurses. Although group setup should be changed in order to better promote health education, few professionals recognized the importance of making such changes. It is essential that family health team professionals are trained to realize that the health education process is not limited to the transfer of information, rather that it includes the shared construction of knowledge between the user and the health provider.本研究旨在对巴西巴拉那州坎波莫朗市针对高血压（hypertension）与糖尿病（diabetes）患者开展的健康教育小组活动进行特征描述。本研究为定量研究，研究对象为121名隶属于家庭健康策略（Family Health Strategy）的专业人员。研究人员采用了包含描述性与评估性变量的调研问卷，变量涵盖社区小组活动开展情况、讨论议题、参与专业人员、意见建议与存在的问题等内容。研究结果显示，70%的基层医疗卫生机构开设了健康教育小组，但此类小组多聚焦于治疗性主题。参与度最高的专业人员为社区卫生工作者与护士。尽管为更好地推进健康教育工作，需对小组活动的组织模式进行调整，但仅有少数专业人员认识到开展此类调整的重要性。亟需对家庭健康团队的专业人员开展培训，使其认识到：健康教育过程并非仅限于信息传递，更涵盖服务对象与医疗服务提供者之间的知识共建。