702-P: Perceptions of Caribbean Type 2 Diabetes Patients towards Insulin Prescription and Therapy

Background and Aim: Previous research studies have shown that poorly controlled type 2 diabetes patients do not receive insulin therapy because of the resistance of the patients to insulin prescription. This study aimed to assess the belief of Caribbean insulin-naive type 2 diabetes patients on insulin therapy.

Methods: We recruited 510 insulin-naive type 2 diabetes patients who have had diabetes for at least five years for a questionnaire interview. The questionnaire was a modified version of a validated research questionnaire previously used by other researchers. Data collected was analysed with SPSS software using chi-square to test for significances.

Results: The majority of the patients were females, of East Indian descent, have had diabetes for more than 10 years and take more than two different diabetes medications daily. About 67% and 81% of the patients do not believe that insulin therapy will cause them hypoglycaemia and weight gain respectively. Similarly, a significant percent do not believe that taking insulin will interfere with their normal lifestyle activities (72.2%, p=0.048). Although, a majority (64%) of the patients believe that taking insulin translates to personal failure in optimal blood glucose control, an overwhelming percent (90%) do not believe that taking insulin will cause people to treat them differently. Whereas a majority of the patients do not believe that taking insulin will be helpful in preventing long-term diabetes complications (63.9%, p=0.001), 51% thought that switching to insulin therapy would make them feel better within six months.

Conclusion: Contrary to several reports, this study shows that insulin-naïve Caribbean type 2 diabetes patients do not have a significant negative perception towards insulin therapy. This finding might be related to the socio-cultural background of the patients studied.