title: [Quality of life with intensive insulin therapy: a prospective comparison of insulin pen and pump].
abstract: The purpose of the following-study was to identify aspects of quality of life that are particularly affected by the mode of insulin therapy. 55 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, who volunteered for a change of their intensive insulin therapy with pen injections to continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) were studied 1 month before, and 6 months after, changing to CSII. The DCCT questionnaire was applied, measuring quality of life in the 4 subscales: satisfaction, impact, social/vocational worries, and diabetes related worries, respectively. The results demonstrate that the "satisfaction" subscale was scored significantly higher (p < 0.02), and the "impact" subscale was scored lower (p < 0.02) with CSII therapy. Single items showed that this was due to greater flexibility with leisure-time activities and with diet, and to significantly less problems with hypoglycaemia. The subscales "social/vocational worries" and "diabetes-related worries" were scored unchanged, HbA1c changed only slightly from 7.5% (SD 1.2) to 6.9% (SD 0.9): (p < 0.05). It is concluded that disease-related deficiencies in quality of life (satisfaction, impact) improve considerably in insulin-dependent diabetic patients after changing voluntarily from intensive insulin therapy with pen injections to continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion.
authors.affiliation: Diabetesambulanz, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schiffers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007271:Injections, Intradermal / Q000523:psychology; D007328:Insulin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007332:Insulin Infusion Systems / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin