Factors associated with therapeutic inertia in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus started on basal insulin.

In this study we aim to identify the factors associated with treatment inertia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who have been recently started on basal insulin (BI). Using UK CPRD GOLD, we identified adults with T2DM with suboptimal glycaemia (HbA1c within 12 months of BI ≥ 7% (≥53 mmol/mol)). We used multivariable Cox regression model to describe the association between patient characteristics and the time to treatment intensification. A total of 12,556 patients were analysed. Compared to individuals aged < 65 years, those aged ≥ 65 years had lower risk of treatment intensification (HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.64-0.73). Other factors included being female (0.93, 0.89-0.99), longer T2DM duration (0.99, 0.98-0.99), living in the most deprived areas (0.90, 0.83-0.98), being a current smoker (0.91, 0.84-0.98), having one (0.91, 0.85-0.97) or more than one comorbidity (0.88, 0.82-0.94), and patients who were on metformin (0.71, 0.63-0.80), or 2nd generation sulphonylureas (0.85; 0.79-0.92) or DPP4 inhibitors (0.87, 0.82-0.93) compared to those who were not. Therapeutic inertia still remains a major barrier, with multiple factors associated with delay in intensification. Interventions to overcome therapeutic inertia need to be implemented at both patient and health care professional level.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.