THE DAILY LIFE AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS RECEIVING PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

In Brazil, chronic illnesses are the main cause of incapacity and death especially in age groups of 50 years and more, an ever increasing overload socially and on communitarian health. Risk factors associated to life style are related to several of these chronic malaises as Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) and Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Thus, all the members of the health group, particularly the one involved in Medical Basic Attention should contribute to the control of these factors, as it implies changes of habits, routines and occupational roles. The municipal Health Secretaria of Ribeirao Preto, State of Sao Paulo established in 1993 a Program of Multi-professional Improvement in SAH and DM aiming to conduct multi-professional and transdisciplinary actions in Medical Basic Attention. The quality of life and daily happenings of assiduous patients of the prevention groups in the Program were investigated by the use of the multi-purpose SF-36 health survey to evaluate quality of life and of by an interview directed to highlight daily difficulties. The results showed that the participants of the group had good perception about the quality of life and achieved satisfactory rates in the activities of daily life. The conclusion was, that this transdisciplinary group work in promoting primary care health benefit patients with hypertension and diabetes and has contributed to their adaptations to the changes occurred in life, due to the disease and build a healthy aging.