Christy Vijay, Snigdha Priya Gurrala and Jyothi Iduculla
St. John's Medical College, India
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Introduction: Insulin is essential for the normal carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism in the body. The deficiency of this hormone leads to a metabolic disorder called diabetes mellitus. There has been an increase push for early initiation of insulin in routine diabetes care. Insulin therapy presents with many challenges due to the complexities associated with use. Insufficient knowledge of its use can result in preventable complications, adverse patient outcome, poor adherence to therapy and invariably poor glycemic control. Our project is aimed at determining the level of awareness among the insulin taking populations both urban and rural about insulin and the methods of insulin administration, storage and disposal. Method: This study was a cross-sectional study and the study participants were 100 patients coming to St. Johns�?? Medical College Hospital both inpatients and outpatients. A self-administered standardized questionnaire was used to collect the data. The tool assessed knowledge on administration, storage, usage and disposal of insulin. Result: Our study included a total of 100 patients of which 59 were males and 41 females. The participants were patients/attendees that were present in a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore, India. The majority of the population belongs to an urban/perurban background. Majority of our participants 57 (57%) were found to have inadequate practice when compared to those who had adequate. Conclusion: The knowledge among the insulin using participants was inadequate, indicating the need for better awareness programs among the health professionals and proper instructed teaching to the user at the time on initiation.
