Social representations of men about self-care and high blood pressure

Abstract

Objective: to understand the social representations of men about self-care and high blood pressure. Method: It is a qualitative research based on the Social Representations Theory (procedural and structural approaches) and on Orem's concept of Self-Care Deficit. It was heldin a public place in a city in Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, with 118 men (age ≥18 years-old). Sociodemographic characterization data, free word evocation techniques and individual in-depth interview with audio recording guided by guiding questions were collected. The data were consolidated with the support of the software: EVOC®, SPSS24, Nvivo Pro11 and Iramuteq. Content analysis (theoretical density - Pearson's coefficient) was performed. Ethical and legal aspects are met. Results: the predominant age group is 18-29 years-old (41.5%). The emerging categories were: 1) adherence to preventive actions in self-care of hypertension (it demonstrated knowledge and insertion of participants) and 2) neglect of self-care in preventive actions of hypertension (doubts or justifications were evident for men not taking care of themselves). Final considerations: the group considers that self-care is the responsibility to have healthy habits (food and physical activity) for disease prevention; and high blood pressure is influenced by: unruly food, physical inactivity and stress, requiring self-care to control and maintain health.