1026-P: Physician-Related Factors Associated with Delay Insulin Initiation in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Oral Antihyperglycemic Agent Treatment Failure

Abstract

Aims: Despite the availability of numerous glucose-lowering therapies and clear guidelines for T2DM management, only 1/3 of the patient with T2DM in Thailand can achieve their glycemic targets. Timely initiation of insulin therapy has been suggested as one of the strategies to solve this problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify physician’s attitudes among the internal medicine residents regarding insulin initiation. Methods: The questionnaire adapting from Physician Attitudes to Insulin Therapy questionnaire was used to conduct a questionnaire-based survey among the internal medicine residents in Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University. Results: The questionnaire was sent to 100 internal medicine residents. The response rate was 80%. The majority of respondents (60%, n=48/80) were willing to initiate insulin therapy for the patients with T2DM, who failed oral antihyperglycemic drug (OHD) treatment at HbA1c level between 7.5-9.5%. In addition, 45% (n=36/80) of respondents use HbA1c threshold of above 8.5% to initiate insulin treatment add on to OHD. However, if the internal medicine residents themselves were diabetes mellitus, they would decide to receive insulin at HbA1c level between 7.0-8.5%. The main reasons regarding insulin initiation barrier by physicians were a consideration of burden on the patients and families to initiate insulin therapy (88%, n=70/80), time-consuming for an explanation about insulin devices, monitoring and adjustment (74%, n=59/80) and difficult to advise the patients who fear the injection drugs to use insulin (70%, n=56/80). Conclusions: Physician-related factors associated with delay insulin initiation need to be addressed for better diabetes management. Internal medicine resident aspects according to high HbA1c thresholds, high effort regarding explanation, and motivation, and the patients and family burdens are the main barriers for insulin initiation. Disclosure T. Sitasuwan: None. S. Choksakunwong: None. W. Srivanichakorn: None.