OBJECTIVES : Positive experience plays an important role in successfully initiating and maintaining AIT among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study aimed to understand patients’ perceptions of current AIT.

METHODS : This is a part of the PURPOSE study (Patient, Nurse, and Physician Survey on Unmet Medical Needs of Injectable Diabetes Treatments), a cross-sectional survey conducted in 13 representative cities across China in 2019. 500 T2DM patients using AIT were identified and asked about their concerns for initiating AIT, satisfaction with current AIT, and areas for improvement of AIT. Satisfaction was measured with a 5-point scale (1=not satisfied at all, 5=very satisfied) for 16 items. Descriptive statistics were conducted using R software, version 3.5.2.

RESULTS : The mean (SD) age of the 500 patients was 55.1 (11.8) years with mean (SD) disease duration of 7.6 (6.4) years. Among them, 48.2% were male and 21.8% were glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists users. The top three concerns for initiating AIT were the inconvenience of daily injection (58.0%), worries about insulin dependence (42.6%), and fear of injection (37.0%). Overall satisfaction mean (SD) score with current AIT was 4.0 (0.6). Patients were least satisfied with medical expenses, inconvenience of drug portability/storage, and injection site reactions (pain, discomfort, rash) (mean = 2.8, 3.2, 3.4, respectively). These three aspects were also the most frequently cited areas for improvement (61.4%, 50.2%, and 36.4%, respectively). In addition, difficulty to assemble needles or refill, needle design (thickness, length, and visibility), and inconvenience of needle replacement were other top areas requiring improvement (24.0%, 23.0%, 21.4%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS : This study described the current unmet medical needs in AIT among Chinese T2DM patients. AIT with more convenient portability/storage, less injection site reactions, easier assembling or refilling procedures, and more user-friendly needle design would help improve patients’ injection experience.