Abstract
As the separation of dispensing and clinical practice has taken hold, opportunities for pharmacies covered by the health insurance scheme to dispense insulin preparations have increased. In view of this, we conducted a questionnaire survey of patient attitudes, degree of compliance and knowledge of warnings concerning insulin therapy since these are important factors in the proper administration of insulin preparations.
Patient understanding of the method of use and storage requirements of insulin preparations was generally satisfactory. However, understanding of some aspects of the use of insulin preparations was significantly low among elderly patients and understanding of particular warnings for the use of insulin was significantly low among patients who had not participated in diabetic seminars or other educational meetings. We also found that understanding of sick days was low even for patients who had participated in educational meetings, presumably because symptoms vary from person to person and the way they deal with them also varies. Therefore, pharmacists should focus on giving guidance on how to manage sick day symptoms based on the results of interviewing patients concerning their daily lives.
