Self-care Practice in Patients from the Three Levels of Primary Care in Health Institutions of Mexico

Abstract

Objective: to know self-care practice in patients of the Ministry of Health hospital units at the beginning of their sufferings. Material and methods: a qualitative and descriptive research, in which 22 of 57 semi-structured interviews from a general research on satisfaction of users were selected, from patients attending the outpatient, inpatient and emergency services. Four of the 120 codes originally created were used to learn practices. Results: the strategies used in self-care practices, according to their importance, were: use of medicinal plants, use of drugs without prescription, physical activity, intake of food, spiritual support and drug use. Conclusions: although patients were attended in the third hospital level of medical care, at the beginning of their condition they used different care strategies in order to cure or to endure pain and discomfort of the disease.