Competences for self-care and self-control in diabetes mellitus type 2 in primary health care

The purpose of the guidelines of self-care and self-control of type 2 diabetes mellitus proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health is to strengthen and qualify users and health care professionals through the integrality and longitudinality of care with this disease. This article aims to present the self-care and self-control of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in objective terms, taking into account the current recommen-dations based on scientific evidence and also from the subjective point of view, that is, emphasizing the aspects related to experience and subjectivity of these people. Next, we present the essential skills for self-care and self-control of users and professionals working in primary health care.