How Common are the Errors in Insulin Injection Techniques – A Real World Study

Abstract

Background: Insulin therapy is identified as the cornerstone of diabetes management for more than a century. Even though awareness programs on correct insulin administration have occupied the mainstream of diabetes management interventions, the prevalence of insulin injection errors among people with diabetes is significant in its count. Aims and Objectives: The current study evaluates the prevalence of various insulin injection errors among people with type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: The study employed a survey-based cross-sectional design to analyze the prevalence of insulin injection errors. The data was collected from people with T2D visiting the Outpatient Department (OPD) of four comprehensive diabetes research centres in Kerala, India. The inclusion criteria for the study include people with type 2 diabetes. The exclusion criteria included people with other types of diabetes, people with newly diagnosed T2D, and people with T2D who were insulin pump users. Demographic characteristics of the cohort were determined. The common errors in the injection administration were identified and the frequency of each error was determined. Data for the variables including, site selection, cleaning of needle and lipohypertrophy were collected. The categorical variables considered for the study was summarized as frequency (%) and all the continuous variables were presented as mean (SD) or median (Q1, Q3) based on the normality assumption. All the tests were carried out at a level of significance of 5 % using R version 4.2.3. Results: The common errors identified among the study cohort include incorrect site selection, inappropriate storage temperature, cleaning of the needle with spirit, hypoglycemia due to incorrect administration of insulin, and the presence of lipohypertrophy. Conclusion: The findings from the study underline the varied types of errors in the self-administration of insulin among the different age groups of the diabetes population and urge the health-care professionals to impart continuous review of the injection procedures patients follow while taking insulin injections