Aims/introduction: We investigated the factors associated with the reliability of insulin self-injection in elderly diabetic patients receiving insulin therapy.
Materials and methods: We enrolled diabetic patients aged ≥65 years and receiving insulin therapy, and assessed their cognitive function by the mini-mental state examination and 1-min mental status examination for category fluency. We also observed their technique of insulin self-injection, and evaluated whether or not patients were able to inject insulin by themselves according to nine defined details in terms of insulin self-injection. The predictive factors for the reliability of insulin self-injection were determined by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. There were 278 participants (135 males, 143 females) enrolled in the present study.
Results: According to multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the 1-min mental status examination score was found to be a significant independent predictor of the reliability of insulin self-injection (odds ratio 0.75; 95% confidence interval 0.62-0.90; P = 0.002).
Conclusions: The 1-min mental status examination for category fluency can be considered more useful than mini-mental state examination to evaluate the reliability of insulin self-injection in elderly diabetic patients receiving insulin therapy.
Keywords: Elderly; Insulin; Self medication.