Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze changes in the definition of diabetes as a disease and the relationship between these changes and subsequent modifications in the therapeutic management of the disease. A content analysis was performed using articles, guidelines, and consensuses published by the Argentina Diabetes Society and the Latin American Diabetes Association between 1980 and 2010. The different classifications, values used to define a person as diabetic, and treatments were assessed and the changes and modifications discovered were critically analyzed using categories such as medicalization, risk and lifestyles. As a result of the analysis we can observe how the growing process of medicalization, the dependence on the scientific knowledge of central countries, the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and the crucial role played by pharmacological treatments are all inscribed within the management of diabetes, which can be made visible through the changes that have taken place over the last 30 years.