Evaluation of perception of insulin therapy among Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract Aims To evaluate whether perception of insulin therapy differs between patients with type 2 diabetes treated with insulin and those treated with oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHAs), and to examine whether gender, education level, injection duration and mode of injection were associated with the patients’ perception of insulin therapy. Methods The validated Chinese version of the Insulin Treatment Appraisal Scale (ITAS) was used to evaluate the perception of insulin therapy among 100 insulin-treated patients and 100 OHA-treated patients. The higher the total score, the more negative is the appraisal. Results The OHA-treated group had a higher mean total score (20 items), a higher mean total score for 16 negative items and a lower mean total score for four positive items than the insulin-treated group. The proportion of participants who rated the negative items as “agree” or “strongly agree” was significantly higher in the OHA-treated group than in the insulin-treated group. In addition, the proportion of participants who rated the four positive items as “agree” or “strongly agree” was lower in the OHA-treated group than in the insulin-treated group. Gender, education level, duration of insulin injection and mode of injection did not have a significant impact on perception of insulin therapy. Conclusion Chinese type 2 diabetic patients taking OHAs had more negative beliefs and attitudes towards insulin therapy than patients being treated with insulin. This difference was not associated with either gender or education level. Furthermore, neither injection duration nor type of device was related to perception of insulin therapy.