Patient perception towards shifting oral antihyperglycemic agents to injectable insulin and associated factors in the diabetes clinic of Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital: Cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: With the growing understanding of the importance of preserving adequate glycemic control for the prevention of long-term diabetes-related complications, insulin therapy has become increasingly recommended for type 2 diabetes. However, insulin use in various healthcare settings remains low due to patients' low levels of acceptability of insulin therapy, which necessitates evaluating patients' attitudes. OBJECTIVE: To assess patients' perception toward shifting oral antihyperglycemic agents to insulin and associated factors at the ambulatory diabetes clinics of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH). METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was applied using a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire on adult type 2 diabetes patients on follow-up at the diabetes clinic of TASH, Ethiopia from July to September 2021. The questionnaire tool was adapted from Insulin Treatment Appraisal Scale with modifications to fit the purpose of the study. Data was gathered, cleaned up, entered, and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for descriptive and logistic regression. For logistic regression data, a p-value of 0.05 was used to determine the statistical significance. RESULT: Of 293 patients, 65.9% were female. Study participants had a mean age of 53.9 ± 10.9 years. About 45% and 75% of the participants have complications and comorbidities, respectively with a mean disease duration of 19.16 ± 8.2 years. Almost 54% of patients on oral antihyperglycemic agents were unwilling to start insulin. A perception score below the median was observed in 56.3% of the respondents. Patients with primary and secondary education were 45% and 42% less likely to have a poor perception of shifting oral antihyperglycemic agents to insulin than those who couldn't read or write (P < 0.05), respectively. The study found that participants who were taking only oral antihyperglycemic agents had a 2.76 times poor perception than those who are on insulin treatment (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Poor perception toward shifting oral antihyperglycemic agents to insulin was found to be high among study participants. It was substantially correlated with low educational attainment, financial constraints, exclusively using oral antihyperglycemic agents, duration of disease, and absence of disease complications.