Nutrition and self-care practices of patients with chronic Metabolic Syndrome: a qualitative study

Metabolic Syndrome: conceptual analysis in the nursing context

OBJECTIVE

to analyze the metabolic syndrome concept and to identify its essential features, antecedents, and outcomes within the context of nursing.

METHOD

conceptual analysis, based on the methodological steps of a model. We carried out an integrative review by accessing four databases online: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, Scientific Electronic Library Online, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, and Índice Bibliográfico Español en Ciencias de la Salud.

RESULTS

the essential features most frequently involved the diagnostic criteria of metabolic syndrome. Inadequate nutrition and physical inactivity were highlighted as the most common antecedents of the syndrome, and the outcomes were occurrences of cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus type 2. As implication, we highlight relevant empirical data to the broad definition of the concept.

CONCLUSION

we could analyze the concept under study regarding essential features, antecedents, and outcomes, operationally defining it as a potential nursing phenomenon, which demands health care focusing on reducing risks and morbidity and mortality for cardiovascular diseases.

The pain and pleasure of being what one is: viewpoints of health professionals and patients about being overweight/obese

The objective of this article is to discuss the meanings that health professionals and patients in treatment attribute to obesity. The research consisted of a qualitative survey in health, based on in-depth interviews with patients and professionals at an out-patient clinic at the University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Here, we discuss the concept of obesity, the meanings of diagnoses, the singularities involved in managing treatment, and the process of becoming ill, all in the light of the anthropology of health that has a sociocultural orientation. Obesity is usually seen by the professionals as a risk-factor disease. For patients, the incorporation of this rationality is procedural and is mixed in with other meanings attributed to being overweight/obese that have been gradually developed throughout life. A patient's autonomy in choosing to be fat, or obese, and to adhere to treatment, is defined as a process that requires support in order to come to joint proposals in caring for these problems.