Fatores motivacionais envolvidos na mudança do comportamento de pessoas em condição de rua com diagnóstico de hipertensão arterial

Abstract

People experiencing homelessness (PEH) is a daily expanding phenomenon, their presence being noticeable when walking through cities. According to research by the Institute of Applied Economic Research, this population grew 140% in Brazil between 2012 and 2020. Among the reasons that have led to this increase is mainly the abusive use of alcohol and drugs. In addition to chemical dependency and infectious and parasitic diseases, the PEH are also affected by chronic non-communicable diseases, among which the most prevalent is systemic arterial hypertension, which has proved to be one of the important challenges in the field of public health, especially by the difficulty of instituting treatment in the territory that these people occupy. On the other hand, the shelter has been proven to be a potential facilitator for the implementation of public policies that have non-drug treatment as their great differential. Changing behavior and lifestyle, however, is still a major obstacle in clinical practice under any circumstances, becoming even greater among homeless patients, due to the socioeconomic context in which they find themselves. Thus, the objective of the present study was to identify the motivational factors involved in the acceptance of non-drug treatment associated with drug treatment by a homeless population in a municipal shelter. This exploratory, observational, and descriptive research was carried out through a case study in the central region of the city of Santos (SP). Initially, the medical records of the shelter's users were consulted, to identify hypertensive patients; later, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted and, finally, the interest and motivation to accept the lifestyle change was investigated. The collected data were transcribed and analyzed following the assumptions of the descending hierarchical classification technique, using textual analysis software (IRAMuTeQ, version 0.7 alpha 2). It was concluded that the creation of an action focused on the non-drug treatment against hypertension with an emphasis on physical activity can rescue the PEH's self-esteem and, consequently, stimulate changes in their lifestyle.