Objective To investigate factors associated with insulin adherence in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) attending a tertiary care centre in Mexico City. Material and Methods Cross-sectional study, including 200 patients. Adherence to insulin therapy was measured with a medication adherence questionnaire. Sociodemographic data and factors related to insulin omission were collected and compared between the nonadherent and adherent groups. Results We categorized 117 (58.5%) patients as nonadherent and 83 (41.5%) as adherent. Among the adherent, only 22 patients (11%) had excellent adherence to insulin therapy. The following factors were associated with nonadherence: lack of planning of daily activities (46.1%), fear of hypoglycemia (41%), economic factors (15.4%), and number of insulin applications (2.31 versus 1.76 applications per day). Conclusions In this study, patients with type 2 diabetes attending a tertiary care referral centre showed inadequate adherence to insulin therapy. The principal factors associated with insulin omission were low socioeconomic status, fear of hypoglycemia, and a greater number of insulin applications per day.

Key Clinical MessageThe evaluation of first‐degree family members is very important to detect additional cases of polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type 2. The genetic evaluation of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) may be useful in the study of this syndrome. This study is the first report of an HLA study of this syndrome in a Mexican family.