It's as easy as 1 2 3. Or is it?

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This article originally posted 29 January, 2010 and appeared in

Issue 506

It's as Easy as 1-2-3 Injections a Day -- Or Is It?

Dave_Joffe

Dave Joffe, BSPharm, CDE, FACA

Editor, Diabetes In Control

According to a study published in the February 2010 issue of Diabetes Care,

57% of the study participants reported omitting insulin injections, with 20%

doing so on a regular basis. The study, " Correlates of Insulin Injection

Omission by Peyrot, et.al. " included several noteworthy statements.

Their study suggests that insulin omission is affected by the perceived

burden of insulin therapy (i.e., having to plan life around insulin

injections and

feeling that the insulin regimen interferes with activities of daily living

such as social activities, work-related activities, and family care-giving

responsibilities). They offer one caveat regarding the findings; they do not

believe that the behavior of planning a patient's day around insulin

injections

actually increases the level of insulin injection omission, but they do

believe that feeling that you have to plan around injections is associated

with

higher frequency of skipping insulin injections. That is, when there is a

conflict between scheduling of treatment and life activities, a patient can

either

plan activities in a way that reduces this conflict or deal with the

conflict by ignoring treatment needs. Reducing the perceived burden of

insulin injections

may require more effort ffrom healthcare providers. As the authors suggested

elsewhere, providers must find out what the specific issues are for each

patient

and work with that patient to develop solutions that work for the patient.