Heart disease experience of adults undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-89102008005000035Keywords:
Cardiomyopathies^i2^srehabilitat, Self care, Psychosocial Impact, Anthropology, Cultural, Qualitative ResearchAbstract
OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the meanings of heart disease experience in patients undergoing rehabilitation post-coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. METHODS:Ethnographic study carried out between 2003 and 2005 in the city Goiânia, Central-West Brazil. Direct observation and in-depth interviews were conducted in 11 patients undergoing rehabilitation post- coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Using an interpretative anthropology approach, data were gathered in narrative documents and analyzed through the identification of units of meanings and thematic groups. RESULTS:Disease-related meanings included heart disease realization, triggered feelings, formulated explanations, surgery acceptance and post-surgery life. Heart disease experience was understood as a biographic rupture, a situation between life and death, disability, loss of autonomy, inability to work. The meanings, analytically constructed, followed a logic that articulated common sense, religion and fragments of medical discourse for the understanding of disease and surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The study results showed that heart disease and surgery experience mark a rupture in the patient's lifestyle, work and their understanding of the health-disease process. The disease experience approach contributes to transcend the limits of a medical model based on disease, its symptoms and causes, and characterized by a biomedical understanding of the health-disease process focused on biological and/or psychological malfunctioning.Downloads
Published
2008-08-01
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Section
Original Articles
How to Cite
Vila, V. da S. C., Rossi, L. A., & Costa, M. C. S. (2008). Heart disease experience of adults undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery . Revista De Saúde Pública, 42(4), 750-756. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-89102008005000035