Trabajadores de la salud y sus significados en torno a la adherencia al tratamiento de la tuberculosis

Abstract

Objectives: To identify the concept of adhesion to the treatment of tuberculosis, the causes that restrict or strength it, by means of the analysis of the meanings of the health workers in a locality in Bogota. Methods: Qualitative, descriptive study. Methodological theory, hermeneutics-dialectics approach. 18 health workers were interviewed. The recording of the data was done in 2010. Results: Participants conceive an adhesion to the treatment as a complex phenomenon: the knowledge about the importance of the treatment, the person's own will to take the treatment and to attend revisions. Moreover, it integrates programmatical factors, such as the visits to the health team, the flexibility regarding the delivery of medicines, the construction and consolidation of support nets for the carriers, the family support, among others. Factors that restrict the adherence: The process health-disease-tuberculosis is recognized as a category that interferes in the adherence phenomenon; this integrates the social stigma, evidenced in stereotypes and prejudices that relate the disease. The health system is seen as broken. The ignorance of the disease, in both patients and workers, generates a fear during the process of attention. Aspects that strength the adherence: Knowledge of the disease and importance of the treatment. The inter-sectorial and inter-institutional actions, the family nets, the human and quality attention of the health professionals, and taking into account with a system of permanent tracking and communication are the main ones. Conclusions: The importance of studies for the understanding and the study of the process of adherence is reiterated. In this sense, several studies must be developed, not only diagnosis studies, but also interventions from diverse viewpoints (academy, civil population, health institutions and governmental beings, among others). © Servicio de Publicaciones - Universidad de Murcia.