This paper aims to evaluate the knowledge of the diabetic and high blood pressure patients from the Family Health Program in the city of Teixeiras-MG, about their illnesses, aiming to develop their empowering/freedom strategies, essential to promote health, to prevent and control such diseases. It is a cross-sectional study, with semi-structured questionnaires, interviewing 10.33% of the high blood pressure and to 15% of the diabetic patients. Most patients were aged individuals, female, with low educational level and income. A total of 40.0% of the diabetic, and 69.14% of the high blood pressure patients could not define these diseases; 50% of the diabetic could not tell the cause and symptoms of their disease; 37.14% of the high blood pressure patients were unaware of the cause and 12.57% were unaware of their symptoms. In terms of the complications associated to their diseases, 33.14% of the diabetic and 33.33% of the high blood pressure patients were unaware of them. About 16.67% of the diabetic and 10.86% of the high blood pressure patients could not inform how to treat these diseases. It is important to implement health care strategies for these population groups, aiming awareness of health, its conditioning factors, and factors that complicate the diseases, so as to have a more effective health education process, once the changes in habits and awareness should always together be side by side - every transformation should be closely associated to the awareness of the situation which the subject lives. The latter takes the commitment of the health care staff, aiming a free and critical participation of the users, contributing to the empowering/freedom of this population, essential to the development of health promotion policies, prevention of disorders and diseases control.
Family Health Program; empowering/freedom; high blood pressure; diabetes mellitus; health education
