Usability and Patient Acceptance of Prefilled or Reusable Insulin Pens

Abstract

Objective: Adherence to insulin therapy is poor in diabetic patients. Insulin pens with many different features have been developed to increase patient satisfaction and compliance to treatment. In our study, we aimed to investigate the usability and acceptance of prefilled or reusable insulin pens.Material and Methods: One hundred and twenty-six patients with a mean age of 55.3±11.1 years were included. Eighty-nine (71%) patients were female. Sixty-three patients were in prefilled pen group. A questionnaire was used to assess patients’ opinions about their use of insulin pens. Glycemic control parameters, demographic characteristics, treatment protocol and microvascular complications were recorded.Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups for age (p=0.3), gender (p=0.1), educational status (p=0.6), duration of diabetes (p=0.8), duration of insulin therapy (p=0.2) and mean insulin dose (p=0.1). Ease of use (p=0.8), ergonomics (p=0.3), ease of dose selection (p=0.6), ease of reading the dose scale (p=0.3) did not significantly differ when two groups were compared. Only the number of patients who found to change the needle as 'moderately difficult' was significantly higher in the prefilled pen group (p=0.04).Conclusion: The applicability of the treatment and patient satisfaction is as important as the treatment given to the patients. However we did not find any important difference between prefilled or reusable pen device in terms of usability and patient satisfaction.