This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Rubin, R. R. Articles by Travis, L. B. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Rubin, R. R. Articles by Travis, L. B. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Barriers to Insulin Injection Therapy

Patient and Health Care Provider Perspectives

From the Department of Medicine (Dr Rubin, Dr Peyrot) and the Department of Pediatrics (Dr Rubin), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Sociology, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland (Dr Peyrot); Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Bone and Mineral Disorders, Henry Ford Health Systems, Detroit, Michigan (Ms Kruger); and the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Nephrology and Diabetes, University of Texas Medical Branch (Dr Travis).

Objective

To compare patients' perceptions of injection-related problems with clinicians' estimates of those problems.

Methods

Data were obtained through 2 Internet surveys, one of US adults self-identified as taking insulin to treat diabetes and the second of health care professionals who treat people with diabetes who inject insulin, including primary care physicians, endocrinologists, and diabetes educators.

Results

A substantial majority of patients would like to reduce the number of injections they take each day; almost half said that they would be more likely to take their insulin injections regularly if a product were available to ease the pain. A much smaller proportion of patients reported that (1) injections were a serious burden, (2) they were dissatisfied with the way they took insulin, (3) injections had a substantial negative impact on quality of life, (4) they skipped injections they should take, or (5) injection-related problems affected the number of injections they were willing to take. Half of the patients said they mentioned injection-related problems to their provider; a similar number reported that their providers had not given them a solution to problems with injection-related pain and bruising. Although awareness of products to ease injection pain was high among providers (especially diabetes educators), this information was not effectively transmitted to patients.

Conclusions

Patients should be encouraged to discuss their injection-related concerns, and providers should regularly ask about injection-related problems. Providers should offer patients information about tools to reduce injection-related worries, preferably by having them available to show and demonstrate.

The Diabetes Educator, Vol. 35, No. 6, 1014-1022 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0145721709345773


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Peyrot, R. R. Rubin, D. F. Kruger, and L. B. Travis Correlates of Insulin Injection Omission Diabetes Care, February 1, 2010; 33(2): 240 - 245. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]