[The health of the elderly that care for elders].

Home care for the elderly has a great ally in the family caregiver, in general a spouse. However, these spouses frequently have health complaints themselves. To understand the meaning of health for elderly spouses who are caregivers, to know the changes in their health after taking this role and to learn how they take care of their own health, the authors developed an exploratory qualitative study in which elderly spouses caregivers were personally interviewed. The speeches were analyzed according to the Discourse Analysis on Collective Subject. The result is that they understood health as having energy, showing no symptoms, needing no doctor, depending on no one and requiring no care. They took care of their own health through diet control, respect to routines and personal habits, performance of their daily activities, physical activities and medical control. The changes noticed after becoming caregivers were tiredness, stress, preoccupation, development of symptoms and illnesses, increase of health risks and changes in routine and in self-esteem.