Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

Uncontrolled patients with oral antidiabetics may require injectable treatment including insulin. We studied the variation of the initial daily insuline dose with the duration of diabetes.

Methods

We conducted a prospective randomized study. We recruited patients with type 2 diabetes hospitalized for a switching to insulin in the C department of diabetology and nutrition at the National Nutrition Institute in Tunis, during 6 months. We correlate the initial daily insuline dose and the duration of diabetes using the Spearman test.

Results

We included 50 patients with type 2 diabetes, 54% were men and 46% were women, with an average age of 59 years ( ± 11), the averge duration of diabetes was 8 years ( ± 7). We found no statistically significant correlation between the initial daily insuline dose and the duration of diabetes (r = 0.006, P = 0.966).

Conclusion

Our results showed that the initial daily insuline dose prescribed for type 2 diabetes is independent of the duration of diabetes. This proves that the recommendations concerning the doses prescribed when switching to insulin can be used for all insulin-dependent patients with type 2 diabetes, regardless of the duration of diabetes.