Perceptions of diabetes among patients and their understanding on insulin usage / Abdul Rahman Aiman Rosli

Diabetes is a group of metabolic disorder that is a common problem yet not well understood, affecting population all over the world with its prevalence keep on increasing year by year (NHMS, 2011 ). Insulin was introduced as one of the treatment of diabetes. However, the effectiveness of the insulin has been compromised due to lack of knowledge and proper education on insulin usage. Hence, this study was conducted in order to describe the perception of diabetes and knowledge on insulin. Besides, the underlying factors that can contribute to improper insulin usage among patients were also be studied. A questionnaire-based survey was done on randomly selected I 00 diabetic patients on insulin therapy. Insulin Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (ITSQ) and 8-Gate Knowledge Questionnaire were used to identify perception and knowledge on diabetes and insulin. Fisher's Exact Tests were used to investigate the associations between variables. In general, the result shows that most of the respondent still lack of knowledge about the diabetes and insulin usage. From 100 respondents, it was only 27% of them who had the proper education on insulin usage. 59 out of 100 insulin user claimed that they had low satisfaction on blood glucose control by using the insulin. Meanwhile from perception aspect, about 58% admit that the insulin treatment was a slight problem or trouble for them. About 97% respondents claimed that they had experienced hypoglycemic (low blood glucose level) signs and symptoms during the treatment.