A importância da caminhada para portadores do diabetes mellitus tipo ii. Levantamento das barreiras percebidas e estratégias de enfrentamento utilizando a estratégia da ativação da intenção

Diabetes mellitus is an important public health problem and the regular walking practice may help to reduce its effects. However, there are personal barriers that frequently difficult the physical activity implementation and the health teams must be aware of them, in order to promote the best self-management process for each case. Experimental study was carried out and intention activation strategy was used, with the purpose of investigating the perceived barriers and the confrontation strategies for walking practice realization, identified among people with diabetes mellitus (n=83), on the Single Health System scope, in a city at the State of Sao Paulo. The subjects were instructed to reflect on the obstacles preventing them to practice walking, as well as to formulate confrontation plans to overcome them. The obstacles served and developed plans were classified by similarity and subject to frequency analysis. Qualitative research of Content Analysis with the thematic analysis technique. The main obstacle reported was the "discouragement" feeling (36.1%). The most frequent confrontation plan to overcome the barriers found was the social support from relatives, neighbors and friends. This knowledge may help the Single Health System multidisciplinary teams to build clinical-educative activities, aiming the increase of physical activities among people with type-2 diabetes mellitus and in other target populations.