World Insulin Injection Day: Tips on insulin administration
About 55.8 per cent of patients reuse their syringes.
VIJAYAWADA: Identifying an urgent need to improve diabetes management and insulin therapy, Forum for Injection Technique and Therapy Expert Recommendations (FITTER) India recommendations-2018 were released in Vijayawada marking the World Insulin Injection Day on Thursday. The brochure on recommendations for best practice in insulin injection and infusion, 2017, was released by Dr. M. Srikanth, head, Dr. Srikanth's Diabetes Specialties Centre and Dr. Vandita Gupta, associate director, BD Medical-Diabetes Care, along with Dr.M. Sunita, a diabetes specialist.
A survey conducted among 14,000 patients from over 400 centres in 42 countries revealed very low levels of awareness on insulin injection technique among patients. Of them, 1,000 patients were from 20 centres representing all the major regions of India. About 55.8 pc of interviewed patients reuse their syringes for insulin use, mostly for convenience or to save cost. Approximately, 40 pc use their pen needles more than 5 times in India. There were low-levels of awareness in patients on aspects like site rotation, injection-related swellings and related concerns of insulin injection technique.
Particularly, in the Vijayawada centre, the Study of Injection Techique Questionnaire (ITQ) says that 41 pc lipo hypertrophy problem occurs in India in contrast with 50 pc occurring in the world, 70 pc use short needles in Vijayawada compared to the worldwide percentage of less than 60. According to the data of Reperstarch, the re-usage of the needles is about 3-5 people in Vijayawada whereas 7-7.5 per cent in other places of India.
"Appropriate injection technique is crucial for successfully managing diabetes through insulin therapy. Fear of needles, inappropriate insulin technique can often cause hard lumps of fat under the skin (Llipo hypertrophy) or it could result in insulin not being absorbed in the body rightly, which eventually can lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)," said Dr. M. Srikanth. “Recognising this issue, FITTER recommendations provide a comprehensive framework which helps in improving insulin use among patients and also optimal management of diabetes,” he added.