Lifestyle of the elderly person living with diabetes and characterization of nursing diagnoses

Abstract

Objective: to identify the lifestyle of the elderly people living with type 2 Diabetes mellitus and to characterize the nursing diagnoses, based on a measuring instrument. Method: quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study; with participation of 35 people over 60 years old, diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes mellitus. The Instrument to Measure the Lifestyle of Diabetics and Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81 were used. Through the inductive-deductive method, with a list of human responses in the lifestyle of the elderly living with type 2 Diabetes mellitus, the seven life style domains were mapped with the 13 domains of NANDA-International to formulate the diagnoses according to the definition, the related or risk factors and the defining characteristics, considering the characteristics of the elderly and the manifestations related to type 2 Diabetes mellitus. Results: from the 35 participants, 28 were women and 7 men, with average age of: 72.3±6.8 years old, average time of diagnosis of Diabetes mellitus type 2 from 13.02±10.61 years. Of the elderly, 23 had a healthy lifestyle, characterizing eleven nursing diagnoses in the domains: Health Promotion, Nutrition, Perception/ Cognition, Coping/Tolerance to Stress and Safety/Protection; the most frequent was Risk of frailty syndrome of the elderly. Conclusion: the elderly living with type 2 Diabetes mellitus presented healthy and very healthy lifestyle behaviors, however, they have risk factors and particular defining characteristics that require that the nursing care should be provided individually.