[Perspectives of chronically ill patients concerning medical care in Guadalajara, Mexico: a qualitative study]. / La perspectiva de enfermos crónicos sobre la atención médica en Guadalajara, México. Un estudio cualitativo.

This paper reports partial findings from a broader study on the experience of people with chronic diseases. The objective was to explore the perspectives of diabetic patients towards medical care. A qualitative study was conducted in a poor neighborhood of Guadalajara, Mexico. Thirty subjects with diabetes mellitus participated in the study. Data was gathered by open and semi-open interviews in the subjects' homes and over the course of one year. Data were analyzed using a combination of content and conversational analyzing techniques. Three perspectives predominated when participants evaluated medical care: some define it as good, some as ambivalent, and the rest as bad. These perspectives were closely linked to their disease experience and available medical options according to their material resources. These perspectives change with time, are specific to each available service and type of medical care, and are constructed in terms of all the subjects' present chronic illnesses. Those treated through the social security system evaluate the care in negative terms, with the opposite occurring with those treated in public health care centers and private facilities. Implications regarding health care reform are discussed.

[The patient's perspective. Reflections on past, present, and future in the chronic illness experience]. / La perspectiva de los sujetos enfermos. Reflexiones sobre pasado, presente y futuro de la experiencia del padecimiento crónico.

The illness experience is a relevant issue in current research and academic discussions. A growing number of research initiatives have undertaken to account for the subject's perspective and subjectivity in the health field. This paper discusses our research team's approach and results in studying the experience of people living with chronic illness. Our perspective is based upon the production in this relatively new field as well as health-related discussions in Latin America. The illness experience calls for an understanding of it as a subjective and existential phenomenon, entailing the phenomenological arena, immersed in the process where ill people "produce" and "reproduce" themselves. The unfolding and course of the illness as well as treatment management are some salient dimensions we evoke. Some lines of future work are presented in order to create a research agenda, highlighting its implications for existing proposals pertaining to health reform in our Latin American countries.

[Soluble, insoluble and total dietary fiber in raw and cooked legumes]. / Fibra dietética soluble, insoluble y total en leguminosas crudas y cocidas.

Soluble (SDF), Insoluble (IDF) and total dietary fiber (TDF) were analysed in 26 samples of the following legumes: Peas (Pisum sativum L) coated and uncoated; beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L), beans (Vigna sinesis L), chick peas (Cicer arietinum L), lentils (Lens culinaris L) and pigeon peas (Cajanus indicus L) raw and cooked, purchased at wholesale level. The AOAC enzimatic-gravimetric method (1990) was used. The cooked grains were drained and dried before analysis. Values for TDF in the raw legumes were 13.6 and 28.9% in chick peas and white beans respectively. In processed grains, values varied from 16.1 and 27.0% in yellow peas uncoated and black beans respectively. As expected the values for IDF were greater in all samples than those for SDF.

[Sources of support of individuals with diabetes in a deprived area of Guadalajara, Mexico]. / Las fuentes de apoyo de los individuos con diabetes en una zona marginal de Guadalajara, México.

This article examines the relationship between sociodemographic factors and sources of support in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus patients living in a socially deprived area of Guadalajara, Mexico. A total of 121 diabetic subjects and the same number of caretakers, spouses and children, participated in the study. Findings show that some variables of diabetic individuals are associated with caretakers' age, sex and kinship. Moreover, sex distribution of children and family composition were also associated with sources of support. No association was found between disease characteristics and those of caretakers. The impact of these results on health services programs is discussed.