Abstract Aim
To investigate differences in the availability of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) between different patient groups as well as what causes a switch to CSII.
Method
Data from 7224 individuals with Type 1 diabetes at ten different care units were analyzed to investigate the impact of gender, impairment, long-term blood glucose, dose of insulin, diabetes duration and age. A comparison between groups of patients was carried out using logistic regression as a cross-sectional study and Cox regression to investigate what precedes switching to CSII.
Results
By using logistic regression the difference between patients currently using and not using CSII is shown. Cox regression furthermore handles time dependent variables and thus provides information on what precedes the switch to CSII. These analyses yielded similar results concerning variables fixed over time. Women use CSII more than men do and the proportion of CSII users differs in different care units. The cross-sectional study proves that old age reduces the likelihood of using CSII. This is confirmed by the time- dependent study that showed how the probability of switching to CSII is considerably lower at an older age. Long-term blood sugar also has a clear effect on the probability of a switch to CSII in which a high value gives a high probability of switching to CSII.
Conclusions
In the current situation, there are differences in the proportion of CSII users between different groups of patients and differences also exist in the different groups’ propensity to switch from other treatments to CSII. Depending on the patients’ gender, impairment, long-term blood glucose, dose of insulin, diabetes duration and age, the probability of switching to CSII also varies.
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