Knowledge, Practice, and Attitude of patients and physicians towards insulin therapy in Type 2 DM: a cross sectional study in TASH patients and Physician from various universities in Ethiopia

Background As type 2 DM is a growing health problem worldwide early treatment and intensification of therapy will decrease the vascular complications as evidenced by large trials. Insulin therapy is delayed in this group of patients and multiple physician and patient factors are mentioned in different settings. Methods This study is a cross-sectional, quantitative descriptive study conducted on 221patients at TASH endocrine clinic and 122 physicians working at TASH, residents visiting for detachment, and Yekatit 12 hospital. Conducted on Jul 1- Sep 30, 2020, G.C Result 76% of physicians think taking insulin at the prescribed time is difficult while only 31.5% of patients think it’s difficult. Hypoglycemia is one of the most fearful parts of having diabetes for 81.1% of patients on Insulin therapy. 87% of physicians and76.6% of patients think insulin-treated diabetes controls life while. 56% of patients therapy know nothing about insulin therapy. 23% of patients said they will not accept insulin therapy the top reason being they will be afraid of insulin injection because they think it will be painful. Conclusion Physicians tend to overestimate the difficulty of insulin injection preparation and dose adjustment fears the risk of hypoglycemia when starting insulin therapy. More than half of our patients not on insulin therapy know nothing about insulin therapy which we have to improve. Even if patients not on insulin therapy overestimate insulin needle phobia and injection pain those who are already on insulin disagree with them.