Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Insulin Therapy Among Diabetic Patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Insulin is mandatory for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) and it may also be required for other types of DM as the disease progresses. Once started patients have to take the drug for lifelong and they face many problems such as problems of injections, storage of insulin, dose and how to take the injection. The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of diabetic patients regarding insulin therapy. Institution-based cross sectional study design was used. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 16.0. A total of 175 patients were interviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire. Majority (58.9%) of the study participants were males. Most (52.0%) of the study participants were injecting insulin in the subcutaneous tissue of the abdomen and no patient preferred gluteal area as insulin injection site. Only 14.9% of the respondents knew the correct way to prepare insulin before drawing to syringe. Educational status was significantly associated with knowledge of preparing insulin before drawing to syringe (p=0.001). About 29.1% responded that they take their insulin injection 30 min before a meal. Around 54.3% of the patients stored insulin in the sand with soaked water. Regarding the attitude of study participants, 13.1% of them believed that regular use of insulin leads to addiction. Majority of the study participants did not know how to store and prepare insulin before drawing to syringe. Most of the patients also didn’t know the reason why they need to change the injection site regularly. Regular health education should be provided to improve the overall patients’ knowledge and practices of insulin therapy.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, practice, diabetes mellitus (DM), insulin

Cite this Article

Berhanu N, Tesema S, Kadi E et al. Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Insulin Therapy Among Diabetic Patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia. Research and Reviews: A Journal of Pharmaceutical Science. 2018; 9(2): 1–10p.