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. 2025 Feb;194(1):161-166.
doi: 10.1007/s11845-024-03826-y. Epub 2024 Oct 14.

Patient's barrier to initiate insulin therapy for type 2 D.M

Ruqaya Adnan Salih  1 , Anmar B Al-Dewachi  1 , Zaid Muayad Yassen  2 , Saad Abdul-Razzak Ibrahim  3
Affiliations

Patient's barrier to initiate insulin therapy for type 2 D.M

Ruqaya Adnan Salih et al. Ir J Med Sci. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a health challenging of the century, more than 300 million people lives with diabetes, and it is one of the biggest global health concerns, awing to its complications. Good glycemic control is the cornerstone to decrease risk of type 2 diabetes complications. Even though, many people still have poor glycemic control which can be partly attributed to late insulin initiation, that can be challenging and forced by numbers of barriers. Identification and analysis of these barriers is crucial to find out effective way to overcome them.

Aim: To assess patient's barriers to initiate insulin therapy among diabetic patients.

Method: A case series study was conducted during the period extending from July 2023 to June 2024, and a total of 360 participants with type two diabetes were included in this study from four Family Medicine Health Centers. Collected data tabulated and analyzed using Excel sheets and applying the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 24.

Results: 26% of the participants were 45-55 years age group, 40% has been diagnosed with diabetes for 5-10 years, and 66% have developed diabetic complications. Fear from hypoglycemia was the comments barrier to initiate insulin therapy and is seen in 84% of the participants.

Conclusion: Many barriers have been identified to influence the initiation of insulin therapy, fear from hypoglycemia was found to be the most influencing barrier. Increasing patient's awareness of symptoms of hypoglycemia, and always take their meal after insulin injection can help to overcome hypoglycemia.

Keywords: Barrier; Hypoglycemia; Insulin; Type 2 diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical consideration: Ethical approval of the study has been obtained from scientific and ethical committee of College of Medicine. Signed consent was obtained from all participants prior their registration. Financial interest: The authors declare they have no any financial interests. Consent for publication: The researchers declare that there is no any conflict of interest. Conflict of interest: No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.

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