Novo Nordisk study highlights impact of lifestyle on insulin therapy

Novo Nordisk has published a new study which underlines the difficulty many diabetes patients are having adhering to insulin therapy regimes.

The company has funded a survey called Global Attitudes of Patients and Physicians in Insulin Therapy, which polled around 3,000 patients and doctors from eight different nations.

It was found that more than a third of patients are skipping doses or failing to follow their prescribed treatments, with reasons including busy lifestyles, the invasive nature of current insulin treatments and fear of hypoglycaemia.

This may be having a negative impact on outcomes, with 88 per cent of physicians stating that a "significant" number of patients are not reaching blood glucose targets.

Professor Luigi Meneghini, associate director at the Diabetes Research Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said: "These results are consistent across countries and it is encouraging to see that physicians understand and empathise with the issues people with diabetes face."

Earlier this week, Novo Nordisk published data from a clinical study of its injectable diabetes drug Victoza, suggesting that patients are more likely to report satisfaction with the treatment than the oral therapy Januvia.