This study aimed to understand the repercussions in the family of the care offered after the implementation of a diabetes education program. We interviewed six relatives of diabetes patients from a university center in Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil, in 2007. Thematic data analysis made it possible to identify three themes: relatives recognize that the Center constitutes a differential for adherence to the food plan, physical activity and medication; the Center is acknowledged as an educative space to get together and control diabetes; the patient as an element that multiplies and expands the knowledge about diabetes in the family. The results indicate that the education program favorably affected the family, expanding its knowledge repertoire about treatment, and that the family core's support is fundamental in treatment adherence.
Diabetes mellitus; Family; Diabetes education; Interdisciplinary team
