Knowledge of Diabetic patients about Insulin injection technique.

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Most of them are due to its macro and microvascular complication. Objectives: To determine the accuracy of insulin injection technique in adult diabetic patients between age of 20 to 50 years on insulin therapy for ≥02 years. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Settings: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. Period: From March to August, 2016. Subjects: All diabetic patients between age 20 to 50 years and on insulin therapy for >02 years were enrolled in the current study. Material & Methods: A total of 260 diabetic patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria, visiting the emergency or medical OPD, who gave informed consent were enrolled. The patient′s knowledge was categorized as "Adequate" or "Inadequate" on the basis of his/her score. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 22 software. Results: The mean (±SD) age of all patients was 36.8 (± 8.5) years. Out of 260 patients, 150 (57.3%) patients were female and 138 (53.1%) lived in urban areas. Majority of patients, 141 (54.2%) received knowledge regarding insulin injection technique from doctors and 98(37.7%) received knowledge from family member or friend. Out of 260, 64 (24.6%) patients had adequate knowledge, while 196 (75.4%) patients had inadequate knowledge score. Conclusions: One quarter of the patients has adequate knowledge about insulin injection techniques. Based on our findings there is a need to conduct awareness campaigns at the community level to impart useful knowledge about diabetes and its various aspects like insulin injections techniques.