The Construction of the Psycho-sociological Knowledge on Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract This study aims to analyze the social representations elaborated by diabetic’s people on diabetes mellitus and your treatment. The sample was composed of 80 participants with ages between 21 and 83 years old (M= 55.92, SD = 12.06), who answered to a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Word Association Test. The data were submitted to SPSS - 19.0 and Tri-deux-mots software and analyzed using descriptive statistics and factorial correspondence analysis. The results showed that the psychosocial knowledge construction of diabetes doesn´t differ from scientific knowledge, while chronic disease, related to blood sugar problems, mood swing and life danger. The treatment, emerged associated as a food control, adherence and follow medical guidelines. It is hoped, that these results will contribute to enlarge the this disease visibility and with the therapeutic practices development in the context of diabetes, targeting both the physical and emotional aspects.