This case study aims to describe how diabetes patients and their main caregivers perceive the difficulties faced to control the disease. Data were collected through audio records made at the Nursing Education Center for Adults and Elderly in April 2003 and submitted to thematic content analysis. The following themes emerged from the analysis: dietary transgressions, medication-related problems and interpersonal influences. These themes are interconnected with interpersonal influence from family members and the peer group, which are based on a set of beliefs and values that interfere in the patients' motivation and capacity to face the decease. The results reveal the need to get to know the patients' and caregivers' pattern of answers related to feelings, conflicts and needs, so as to establish an effective link that offers conditions to develop collaborative strategies to achieve metabolic control.
diabetes mellitus; nursing; caregivers
