Yaşar KOŞAR, Mustafa Haki SUCAKLI, Muharrem AK, Metin CANBAL

What primary care physicians think about insulin initiation in type 2 diabetes: a feld-based study

Background/aim: A signifcant number of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus require insulin and little is known about the possiblephysician-related factors that could cause a delay in the initiation of insulin treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes. Tis study aimedto evaluate those factors.Materials and methods: A total of 87 family physicians working at 36 family health centers in urban Malatya participated in our studyon a voluntary basis. A self-administered survey form was structured to gather the views of the primary care physicians. Te survey wasdeveloped based on a review of the literature. Te survey consisted of Likert scale item questions regarding knowledge about the diseaseof diabetes mellitus and the views of the primary care physicians regarding insulin initiation for type 2 diabetic patients.Results: Almost half of the participants (42.5%, n = 37) felt incompetent in the starting dosage adjustment and 40.2% (n = 35) of theparticipants felt incompetent in maintaining the appropriate dosage adjustment. In terms of sex, female family physicians were found tobe more uncertain about the timing of initiating insulin treatment for diabetic patients.Conclusion: Tis study shows the necessity of continuous education activities and interventions to promote motivation in familyphysicians to improve care of diabetic patients in primary care.

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