The purpose of this article is to identify the social representations of low-income diabetic women according to the health-disease process. This is a descriptive, exploratory study. Eight participants, all of them patients at a basic health unit in Ribeirão Preto, were interviewed in 2003. The data were organized according to thematic content analysis and analyzed according to theory of social representations. Diabetes is related to negative feelings, such as shock, anger and sadness; the diet plan is linked to the loss of pleasure, and also to health risks. The diabetic women showed an ambivalent relation to medication, perceived it as both tiring and as a resource that promotes well-being and improvements in quality of life. The negative representation of health services seems to interfere with the behavior of adherence to pharmacological treatment. Understanding the representations of women with diabetes contributes to integral healthcare for diabetic patients.
diabetes mellitus; health-disease process; health educación
