Conditions: Diabetes Mellitus
Keywords: diabetes elderly insulin injections
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Enrollment: 49
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Several studies have shown that high blood sugar (glucose) levels are associated with diseases caused by diabetes. Controlling the glucose may prevent these complications. As people age, their bodies become unable to make enough insulin to control the blood sugars. Pills used to treat diabetes may help for a while, but many times this does not last. When the blood sugar is too high, insulin is frequently recommended and used to treat diabetes. Insulin is often started by adding a long-acting insulin to the medicines a patient already takes. In this study, glargine insulin will be taken together with the diabetes pills currently being used. Glargine is a long-acting insulin which is given under the skin once a day. Glargine is approved for use in the treatment of patients with diabetes by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).

Currently, insulin delivery is only available as a shot. The purpose of this study is to compare how satisfied patients are when using two different types of insulin shots. Specifically, this study aims to determine if people over 65 years old are more satisfied taking insulin shots by pens or syringes. Everyone who joins in this study will have a chance to use the insulin syringes and the insulin pens.

The ability of patients to give themselves shots can affect how well the sugar is controlled. As people age, medical and other problems may develop that affect their ability to do certain things. Another aim of this study is to determine if the ability to use an insulin pen and insulin syringe is affected by age or some other problem.

During this study, participants will be treated with insulin given by a syringe for 12 weeks and by a pen for 12 weeks. Questionnaires will be given to determine satisfaction with treatment throughout the study. The investigators hypothesize that among elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus failing oral agent therapy, treatment with basal insulin via a pen device results in higher treatment satisfaction scores and more accurate dosing than treatment with basal insulin via conventional vial and syringe methods.

A total of 56 subjects with type 2 diabetes will be recruited into this study. The site for the study is Grady Memorial Hospital clinics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Crossover phase: patients randomized to the sequence: Insulin glargine vial and syringe in Period 1 and Insulin glargine SoloSTAR pen in Period 2. arm 2: Crossover phase: patients randomized to the sequence: Insulin glargine SoloSTAR® pen in Period 1 and Insulin glargine vial and syringe in Period 2.

Interventions: intervention 1: Glargine intervention 2: glargine via insulin pen
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: oral antidiabetic agents plus once daily insulin glargine via an insulin syringe intervention 2: oral antidiabetic agents plus insulin glargine in a pre-filled pen

Protocol document: