Habits related to the use of insulin infusion set in patients with type 1 diabetes on pump therapy - the effect of the educational intervention.

Introduction: Proper use of insulin infusion sets (IIS) plays an important role in pump therapy of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). We assessed the habits associated with the use of IIS in patients with T1DM treated with insulin pump.

Materials and methods: This study included 79 T1DM patients who were examined for the presence of lipohypertrophy (LH) and retrained for proper IIS use. They completed a standard questionnaire regarding IIS at the time of study entry and at the follow-up. R e s u l t s: At baseline, most of the patients declared to have been using a plastic cannula (n = 68; 86.1%), changing the infusion set regularly (n = 65; 82.3%), and placing the infusion sets on the abdomen wall (n = 68; 86.1%). The most common rotation habit was the "curve pattern" on both sides of the umbilicus (n = 16; 20.3%). After a median of 23 weeks (IQR 20-34), 58 patients were available for the follow-up. A rise in the proportion of patients who declared to change IIS regularly (n = 48; 82.8% vs. n = 57; 98.3%, p = 0.016), change IIS every 2 to 3 days (n = 27; 46.6% vs. n = 35; 60.3%, p = 0.043), use "crisscross" rotation (n = 5; 8.8% vs. n = 12; 21.4%, p = 0.027) was observed. There were less patients reporting not having repeatable rotation manner (n = 15; 26.3% vs. n = 2; 5.4%, p = 0.009). C o n c l u s i o n s: A substantial proportion of T1DM patients on pump therapy declare that they do not follow the recommended principles of IIS use. The intervention consisting of LH assessment and retrain- ing of proper use of IIS might be effective in improving patient compliance.