New research has revealed that a third of people suffering from diabetes miss taking doses of insulin, or fail to take the treatment as prescribed. The survey, of nearly 3,000 people with diabetes and healthcare professionals in eight countries around the world, found serious omissions in the use of insulin among diabetics .
Of the healthcare professionals that were surveyed, 77 per cent of them estimated that diabetics could be regularly missing or incorrectly taking as much as six missed doses, with 88 per cent also reporting that there many of their patients still did not properly reach the optimum blood glucose levels .
It was also shown that 40 per cent of people with diabetes found that they struggled to effectively control their blood glucose . The main reasons given for skipping insulin was being too busy, a change to usual routine, or just forgetting to take their dose.
The Global Attitudes of Patients and Physicians in Insulin Therapy report surveyed people in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, China, Japa, US and Turkey, 1,530 of which took insulin to control their diabetes and 1,250 who were healthcare professionals.
Cathy Moulto, clinical advisor at the charity Diabetes UK, commented “Good blood glucose control is vital in preventing the long-term complications of diabetes which can include heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation . Missing insulin doses makes it harder to achieve the targets for optimum health, so it is important to look at why these omissions are happening and try to resolve any problems.”
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