[The meaning of type 2 diabetes mellitus from the patient's perspective]. / El significado de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2 desde la perspectiva del paciente.

INTRODUCTION: Medical anthropology considers the sociocultural aspects of illnesses, from the biomedical definition of the experience of the one who suffers the illness. This is what makes the difference between a disease and an illness, in other words, an explanatory model of illness. OBJECTIVES: To show the cultural consensus elaborated and shared by a group of diabetics through personal experience, of the causes, symptoms, treatment and complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus; to highlight the importance this has in the daily medical practice, and to understand the meaning of type 2 diabetes from the patient's perspective. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 88 patients were studied in an interactive process, with an interview outline that was applied in an open form at the waiting rooms for outpatients at two family medicine units of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in Guadalajara, Jalisco. RESULTS: The way in which patients construct a definition and an explanation of their illness is a syncretism of lived experiences done in a procedural manner. In this reconciliation, patients with diabetes integrate biomedical elements, alternative medicines, deities and even sorcery. CONCLUSIONS: These previously mentioned factors should be considered when in contact with the patient if one thinks that the influence of a doctor or institutional health care provider has the objective of achieving a greater effectiveness in the long-term handling of these patients.