Updated guidelines say physicians should not use age as an excuse
to avoid use of insulin which can delay treatment, result in
complications
Photo credit: Heather Aitken
In order to help the elderly and pregnant women overcome fear of
taking insulin injections, the updated guidelines for injection
techniques have been released. According to a 2012 report of United
Nations Population Fund and non-profit HelpAge India, the country had 90
million elderly persons (aged 60 or more) in 2011, with the number
expected to grow to 173 million by 2026. Managing chronic diseases like
diabetes among them is expected to be a huge challenge.
"Counselling the elderly or geriatric patients for self-injection can
be a challenging task. Unlike the young, they may have certain
age-related potential difficulty in executing the instructions for
injections properly. The guidelines suggest that physicians should not
use age as an excuse to avoid usage of insulin which can delay the
treatment and result in further complications. Along with insulin
initiation for elderly patients, health-care providers must ensure the
involvement of responsible family members and attendants during the
selection of insulin and explanation of injection technique," said S V
Madhu, professor and head of department of medicine and endocrinology at
the University College of Medical Sciences, GTB Hospital, Delhi.
Similarly, pregnant women are also among the vulnerable group because of
sensitive nature of bodily functions during pregnancy.
The guidelines were launched by the Research Society for the Study of
Diabetes in India (RSSDI). The society conducts research, monitors
trends and advise governments on diabetes related issues in India. The
guidelines are aimed at helping doctors, paramedics, health workers and
patients in using injections and syringes properly, with minimum pain
and without side-effects like skin infections and bruises.
The first set of guidelines by RSSDI was launched in 2012. It talked
about general precautions to be taken while injecting anything in body
like cleaning the skin and other techniques. The new guidelines have
added separate sections for the elderly, pregnant women, patients with
skin diseases and patients who have recently been through a surgery. It
also talks about new techniques specific to diabetes like using pump for
injecting insulin.
"The guidelines will help people understand many things like the
angle at which an injection should be administered, size of needle for
different purposes, body location which should be injected and rotation
of the site of injection, among others. We are linking it to diabetes
because its treatment is closely linked with taking insulin through
injection everyday," said Rajeev Chawla, joint secretary of RSSDI.
RSSDI also declared January 11 as insulin injection day, the day on
which insulin was first injected in 1922 to 14-year-old Leonard Thompson
in Toronto, Canada.
