Psychosocial factors related to the behavioral intention of people with type 2 diabetes using insulin.
Bernadete de Lourdes André Gouveia, Mailson Marques de Sousa, Taciana da Costa Farias Almeida and 4 others
PMID 36542050WHAT IT FOUND
Adults using insulin for diabetes reported very high intention to take it as prescribed, even with low schooling and income.
Seeing insulin as beneficial and feeling family support were linked to higher intention; expecting pain and low blood sugar were linked to lower intention.
Key findings
01The median intention score was 5.0 on a 1 to 5 scale.
02Attitude and normative beliefs were weakly positively related to intention (r = 0.16 and r = 0.25), while behavioral beliefs were weakly negatively related (r = -0.15).
03Participants who believed insulin would cause pain, low blood sugar, bleeding, spots or hardening at injection sites reported lower intention to use it.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Single outpatient clinic in Northeast Brazil, so results may not apply to other settings. Cross-sectional design, so it cannot show that attitude or beliefs cause intention, or that intention becomes actual insulin use. Intention was at the top of the scale, limiting analyses of what predicts it. Participants had to use insulin exclusively for six months and were excluded if they had neurological impairment or communication difficulty, so it does not cover all people with type 2 diabetes. The questionnaire was developed locally and content-validity tested by nurses and psychologists, so its scores may not transfer to other cultures or populations. The paper did not assess whether participants actually took insulin as prescribed.
Declared interests
The article does not report funding or conflicts of interest. It does report ethics committee approval and informed consent.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the high intention score as proof that patients actually take insulin as prescribed. The study measured intention only, the correlations were weak, and it did not follow people to see whether intention became behavior.