A STUDY TO ASSESS KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE CONCERNING INSULIN USE IN ADULT PATIENTS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS IN TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

India had 69.2 million diabetic patients (8.7%) in 2015. Insulin is an important part of diabetes treatment, despite this one-third of patients fail to take their insulin as prescribed, and many adults intentionally skip their doses. Since, diabetes treatment continues for lifetime, there is a need to assess the knowledge and understanding of patients in relation to their disease process and its management. A cross sectional, observational, KAP (knowledge, attitude and practice) survey was carried on patients of both type I and type II diabetes mellitus who self-administered insulin and attended medicine diabetes OPD in tertiary care centre for duration of 3 months. 56 diabetic patients ?18 years of age who were willing to respond to the study questionnaire were interviewed. The finalized questionnaire contained 43 questions of which the first 20 pertained to knowledge and attitude and rest focused on practice. None of the subjects were aware of HbA1c as monitoring tool and none of them used glucometer and only 35.71% carried simple carbohydrates for use while travelling for hypoglycemia. Knowledge and attitude as compared to previous literature were not satisfactory. Some aspects of practice were satisfactory but use of modern practices were absent.