Epidemiological, psychosocial and therapeutic vision of diabetes mellitus in Argentina from the perspectives of health team and people with diabetes

Introduction: diabetes mellitus (DM) generates a heavy socioeconomic burden, and to address it, it is necessary to investigate its possible conditioning factors to achieve effective control, prevention, and treatment. Objectives: to understand the problem of diabetes in Argentina, from the perspective of health professionals and people with DM and the strategies to improve it. Materials and methods: it was implemented a descriptive study with qualitative methodology based on the metaplan technique. A questionnaire was designed with two questions (What are, in your opinion, the problems faced by diabetes in our country?, What strategies would you use to solve them?), which was distributed to health professionals and people with DM via the Internet of their respective Societies during June-July 2021. The participants (adults, residents of Argentina) had to answer up to 4 alternatives in each question. All the responses received were reviewed, grouped by topic and analyzed/ quanti ed using descriptive techniques, expressing the results as percentages. Results: the final sample included 404 professionals from the health team and 272 people with DM: mostly with type 1 DM. The analysis shows that there is: a) a poor organization of coverage; b) a predominance of unhealthy habits; c) scarce provision of structured diabetes education, which makes it dif cult to diagnose and adequately treat, and train patients to participate actively and ef ciently in the control and treatment of their disease; d) there is a deficient quality of care. Conclusions: our results, similar to those obtained in other countries, suggest that the solution strategies would go through the restructuring of medical training, achieving a harmonious balance between the primary level of care and the specialties, adding a decrease in the psychological burden of the patient. It would be facilitated by the harmonious cooperation of educational institutions and scientific societies. Likewise, through a consensual intervention of different sectors of society.